THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it is expecting its weekend conference to be the biggest since 1980, the year it campaigned on an anti-Communist platform and kicked Michael Manley’s Socialist People’s National Party out of office with a landslide 51-9 victory.

However, the party said yesterday that the conference, to be held at the National Arena in Kingston, will concentrate more on content rather than crowd support.

“We are expecting a very excellent turnout because the party is more united now than it has ever been. But, the real focus will be on content, as we want the delegates to share in the discussions which will lead to formulation of our policies. We are making a determined effort to involve the delegates,” the party’s general secretary Karl Samuda told a press briefing at its Belmont Road headquarters in Kingston yesterday.

Samuda said that the JLP would never again allow internal differences to block its success, and would be encouraging a level of democracy never before seen within local political parties.

The private session on Saturday will be highlighted by a forum, at which spokesmen/shadow ministers will discuss with the nearly 4,000 delegates policy issues to do with their various portfolios. The party’s four deputy leaders will also make their reports on Saturday. The views of the delegates will be assessed and analysed to inform policy, Samuda said.

He said that the party was taking the issue of its manifesto very seriously and will focus, primarily, on areas that would encourage growth and development.

The 60 candidates, including 30 businessmen, 10 lawyers and five engineers, will also be presented at the conference.

Both the private session on Saturday and Sunday’s public session will be highlighted by addresses from the Leader of the Opposition Bruce Golding, Samuda said.

Golding will give his charge to the delegates at the close of the private session on Saturday.

Sunday, the big day, will also be highlighted by Golding’s address, which JLP spokesmen, boosted by the latest poll results, are insisting will be his final as opposition leader as they look forward to gain the ascendancy at the next general elections.

According to deputy general secretary, Andre Franklyn, Golding’s speech on Sunday will set out the party’s vision for Jamaica.

Meanwhile, information spokesman Neville James said more than 70 media organisations have sought permission to cover the two-day conference, expected to be the final before the next general elections are called. The media will be allowed into both Saturday’s private session and Sunday’s public session and will be entertained in an hospitality area, James said.

The public session, which begins at 11:00 am will also feature presentations by the president of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) Ruddy Spencer; chairman of the party Dr Kenneth Baugh; and the general secretary Samuda.

Yesterday, Franklyn warned supporters against exuberance. “We are asking the youths to desist from wearing hoods and masks and we are warning against body protrusion by persons travelling on the buses to and from the conference,” he said. He said, too, that the party would be seeking to enforce a no smoking rule inside the Arena. “And we are asking all persons attending the conference to abide by these guidelines,” Franklyn said.