HOPEWELL, Hanover — Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on Tuesday lauded members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) for their yeoman service over the campaign period leading up to the general election, set for Thursday, February 25.

“I have seen officers and I am sure since the start of the (election) campaigns they have not rested yet,” noted the Prime Minster, who is also president of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP).

“Some even travelled from Kingston to be here today (Tuesday) and I just want to say to you, help me big up the members of the Jamaica Constabulary,”

She was addressing PNP supporters at the Hanover Eastern constituency office in Hopwell, Hanover.

Members of the security forces have been kept busy, especially in the neighbouring parish of St James where two men were shot and killed and six other people, including four women, shot and injured during a Jamaica Labour Party mass rally in Sam Sharp Square on Sunday, February 7.

During a subsequent press conference at the Area One headquarters, the police disclosed that the incident was a result of a feud between the Sparta Gang and the Rebel Gangs, both based in the Flanker community in the parish.

Then on On Nomination Day, Tuesday, February 9, the police were summoned to the Flanker community after gunmen shot up a bus transporting Jamaica Labour Party supporters in that community.

In the meantime, Simpson Miller also lauded members of the media for their excellent coverage of election campaign season.

While she highlighted some of her Administration’s achievements, she made it clear there was much work to be done and urged party supporters to ensure that they turn out and vote on Election Day.

“Comrades, you know what we have done already, but there is still much more work to be done in this country and one of the things we cannot do is to put the country in the hands of the people who are not really tried and tested,” she said. “We have been tried and tested and have done a lot in this country, benefitting the Jamaican people.”

The PNP’s candidate for Hanover Eastern in the upcoming election is Mayor of Lucea Wynter McIntosh, who will do battle against the JLP’s Dave Brown for the seat.

In the 2007 General Election, Dr Duncan defeated the then incumbent JLP representative Barrington Gray by 10 votes following a magisterial recount.

Four years later, he beat the JLP’s Paula Kerr-Jarrett by a margin of 264 votes.

Just over two years ago, Kerr-Jarrett resigned as the party’s standard-bearer in the constituency, citing the need to spend more time in her family business as her reason for leaving representational politics.

Since then, Brown, a successful Montego Bay businessman, has been working assiduously to ensure that the seat returns to the Opposition JLP in the upcoming general election.