SPALDINGS, Clarendon – A bubbling, confident Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller told thousands of cheering supporters in this North-West Clarendon town on Wednesday night that her ruling People’s National Party (PNP) will be returned to power in the August 27 parliamentary elections, based on its achievements over the last 18 years.

Declaring that “everywhere I go across Jamaica I get the same message, the people dun wid di bell (symbol of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party)”, Simpson Miller said her party would hand the JLP “a love letter of defeat that they have never witnessed before…”

The prime minister, who took over leadership of the country and the PNP early last year, said Jamaica had seen impressive progress and development after taking power from the JLP in 1989.

“This country is not like it was 18 years ago: look at the highways, look at the toll roads, look at the airports, look at the level of development, look at the seaports, look at hotel development and thousands of jobs created by way of investment taking place,” she said.

The rally in Spaldings, the leading town in NW Clarendon just over the border from Manchester, followed a tour by the prime minister of sections of Northern Clarendon and North-East Manchester.

The incumbent candidate for NW Clarendon, Richard Azan, who spoke just before the prime minister, boasted that his campaign to retain the seat was based on a record of “performance … development and improvement”. Azan will be up against the JLP’s Michael Stern in the August 27 poll.

The thousands of happy, enthusiastic supporters many of whom appeared reluctant to disperse when the meeting ended at 11:30 pm, also heard from PNP General Secretary Danny Buchanan; the PNP candidate for North-East Manchester, Paul Lyn; Health Minister and the incumbent candidate for North Clarendon Horace Dalley, among others. The meeting was enlivened by a short performance from the legendary PNP balladeer, Neville ‘Struggle’ Martin, who declared in song that “we nah change course” and “don’t stop the progress”.

Arguing that Jamaicans should “beware” of “false promises,” Simpson Miller told her supporters in an hour-long address that “I am not coming to make promises. I am here to tell you I cannot do everything at the same time. I have to identify priorities and identify the resources and I know what your priorities are right now: it is education, it is fighting the crime and violence, it is roads … good agricultural roads and housing scheme roads, potable water across the country, it is about getting electricity in areas that do not now have electricity…”

In what was a clear response to the JLP’s promise of immediate free tuition for high school children should it win political power, Simpson Miller said her government was well aware that “education is the foundation around which everything else will revolve”. Principals of high schools across the country were being asked to “deal and treat with those students” who lack the ability to pay school fees. It was with those children in mind that the government had opted to pay up front to schools over $300 million ahead of the September resumption of classes after the summer holidays, she said.