OPPOSITION Leader Andrew Holness, making references to the open secret of political representatives doling out money in exchange for votes, on Sunday told supporters of his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to go ahead and accept the money if approached by the People’s National Party.

But only on condition that they vote the party out of power.

“Nyam dem out and vote dem out!” Holness told a cheering crowd at a rally in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

“As we close we know that elections are in the air, we know that the PNP (People’s National Party) going try them tricks, they are going to come into some communities and try to buy you out,” Holness told them, “Take the money! Take the money! A say to the youth them, where dem a go try to buy unuh out, I say to you take the money and ask for more!” said Holness.

The way he reasoned it, there would be no harm playing into the vote-buying, as the money belongs to the people in the first place.

“Is your money in the first place,” he told the cheering crowd. “Is the road weh you never get that them a come give you money for now, is the water that you never get that them a come give you money for now.”

“When them come with the money, smile with them, carry them around the community, show them everybody because every body to get some of the money to because them deserve it. Take the money and vote them out, nyam them out and vote them out,” said Holness as he addressed the hundreds of cheering supporters.

The party leader, stating that his party was more than ready, however, warned JLP supporters not to fall victims to possible PNP tactics to secure another victory.

“If you sell yuh vote, yuh sell yuh soul. Hold on to your soul because your soul will set you free. Be true to yuhself because yuh know them no deserve it; truth will set you free,” Holness said.

The PNP, he said, has pushed the country into decline with its poor management in a number of sectors, including health and crime. “The Government that you elect is not running your affairs properly,” said Holness of the PNP.

The Opposition leader says if the JLP forms the next Government one of the first things the Administration will do is to increase the budget for education by an additional one billion dollars.

“We are going to ensure that every single Jamaican can go to school whether they can afford the fee or not, and we will do this by increasing the budget to education by an additional one billion dollars to ensure that the per student grant is increased to keep it aligned with inflation and devaluation as we improve the support for each child.

Holness also spoke about plans to use technology to make the Government more efficient, adding that savings from this initiative would be used to create real jobs for real people.

He also reiterated plans to create employment for school leavers.

“We are going to create for our young school leaders an apprentice programme that trains them in data entry, document management and database creation and we are going to use them to take all paper-based documents throughout the Government [service] and we are going to digitise them,” he said.

He said such a move could help to create a national health database, which could address some of the setbacks in the health sector and was also another way to use technology to make the Government more efficient.

Holness says he plans to also become the growth czar for Jamaica and look at ways in which the business environment could be made more efficient, adding that he would also look to create a pool of investment ambassadors for Jamaica.

“I intend to go and travel and meet with some of the big investors. People who want to do business in Jamaica and I will become the growth czar for Jamaica to make sure that where the investments are, they know that there are opportunities here in Jamaica for growth,” said Holness.