MONTEGO BAY, St James — Opposition Leader Andrew Holness has promised to commence the legislative process to establish a fixed date for general election within the first 100 days if the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) forms the next Government.

The promise, Holness told thousands of cheering JLP supporters in the historic Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay on Sunday night, during the official launch of the party’s general election campaign, formed part of a plan to bring “real change to Jamaica”.

“The time to change the system to a fixed election date is now. Within our first 100 days of Government, we will start the legislative process to fix the general election date in Jamaica. This will bring greater certainty to the political process. And by the way, the date will be a date after the budget and not before,” Holness told the Labourites, who stood their ground amid the threat of heavy rainfall.

“So no Government will be able to come and make false promises and hide the truth and tell you half-truths and trick you into voting for them, and when them come them throw poison pon you,” he continued.

He added that within the first 100 days, his Administration will also commence the legislative process to institute impeachment proceedings in Parliament.

“This will add another layer of protection of the Parliament to ensure that only members of unquestionable integrity sit in the Parliament,” said the Opposition leader.

He also stated that legislation will start to set a fixed term limit for the prime minister in the first 100 days in office, adding too that he plans to have a grand referendum on the Caribbean Court of Justice and the buggery law.

“Those are just some of the things that we are going to put in place to ensure that you have some control over the politics; that the political structure reflects some of your views and that it responds to you. We want to put real power in your hands,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Holness, during his more than one-hour-long speech, which ended abruptly following an incident at the meeting in which five people were shot,

two fatally — also used the meeting to defend aspects of the party’s 10-point plan that he announced in a televised address last week.

The plan, among other things, entails the elimination of income tax for those earning $1.5 million or less annually.

He noted that the previous JLP Administration delivered on a similar plan in 2009, when about 137,000 people were removed from the income tax roll.

Holness stressed that the policy would leave workers with more money to spend.

“We are not, in any way, afraid of implementing the policies that we propose. We have done our research and our figures and will, as time goes by, release them little by little. We assure you that there are enough taxes there, enough fat there, to ensure you that that we can raise the threshold,” he emphasised.