MONTEGO BAY, St James — AFFILIATE groups of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) have targeted five constituencies in western Jamaica, which they say are “crucial” to win if their respective party is to succeed in forming the next government.

“The constituencies that we are zeroing in on are seats that we believe that we can win, but need some work,” Junior Rose, president of the PNP Youth Organisation, told the Observer West. “These seats are very crucial to our general election victory and so we can’t afford to make any mistakes with them.”

He noted that his organisation has been playing a major role in the campaign activities of Ian Hayles, the incumbent member of parliament for Western Hanover, as well as in South East St Elizabeth where the PNP’s Richard Parchment is challenging the JLP’s Franklin Witter.

Hayles, a former member of the ruling JLP, is being challenged for the parliamentary seat by the JLP’s Donovan Hamilton.

Both seats were won in the last general election with margins of less than 500 votes.

Some local political observers believe that the general election will be a closely contested affair between the two major political parties.

Over the past few days, the Andrew Holness-led JLP and Portia Simpson Miller’s PNP have intensified their campaign, in a bid to secure victory in the December 29 polls.

Chairman of the JLP’s affiliate group, Generation 2000 (G2K), Delano Seivwright — who expressed confidence that his party will be victorious in the election — said his group has targeted the constituencies of West Central St James, South East St Elizabeth, Eastern Hanover, and Central Westmoreland.

In West Central St James, the JLP’s Clive Mullings is being challenged by attorney Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams. Mullings won the seat by just over 500 votes against the PNP’s Francis Tullouch in the 2007 general election.

In Central Westmoreland, the JLP’s Marlene Malahoo Forte is challenging veteran PNP politician Roger Clarke for the seat. Clarke won the seat by a majority of 1,809 votes against the JLP’s Russel Hammond in the 2007 election.

Seivwright added that G2K is also working closely with JLP candidate Paula Kerr-Jarrett, in a bid to wrest the Eastern Hanover seat from the PNP’s DK Duncan.

Duncan won the parliamentary seat by a majority of 10 votes over the JLP’s Barrington Gray in a magisterial recount.

But according to recent opinion polls done in the constituency, Duncan is trailing Kerr-Jarrett by nine percentage points.

“G2K has a great track record of work and these seats are getting priority attention,” Seivwright emphasised.

He explained that the group’s work in the constituencies include organisational management; database analysis and management and public relations.

Seivwright pointed out that the organisation has a very active chapter in St James and are also providing support to other seats in the parish that are considered safe.

“G2K’s general role nationally in the campaign is really focused on technical support to marginal constituencies, public relations, social media and communications, and general campaign coordination and support,” he noted.

The group was instrumental in formulating many of the ideas and policies presented in the JLP’s 2007 election manifesto and is said to have played a significant role in the party’s victory over the PNP in the general election of that year.

“Over the last few years, we have placed a lot of our resources and effort in getting the JLP to be organisationally ready,” Seivwright told Observer West, pointing to the work that the groups Polling and Training Unit has been doing quietly.

The Polling and Training Unit has spent time doing a detailed analysis of the past elections, conducting polls to identify voter trends and attitudes, and building the capacity of the party’s workers. The group has also assisted the party in the enumeration exercise, and has made significant contributions to the JLP’s soon-to-be-released 2011 election manifesto.