KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Jamaica Labour Party kicked off its 76th annual conference with a praise and worship session at the National Arena in Kingston this morning as hundreds of supporters streamed into the venue.

The conference is expected to be the final one before the general elections, which are constitutionally due by 2021.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness will highlight the Government’s performance since February 2016, when it clipped the People’s National Party (PNP) by a single seat, then went on to grab two “safe” rural constituencies from the Opposition party in by-elections, extending the lead.

Read more: JLP all set for 76th conference

Other main speakers including Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Audley Shaw; Chairman Robert Montague, Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke; House Leader Karl Samuda; the ‘First Lady’ of the party, Olivia “Babsy” Grange; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Johnson Smith and virtual conference chairman for life, Desmond McKenzie, will be challenged to hold the crowd’s attention for the approximately six hours that the meeting is expected to last.

Special guest at the conference will be the 73-year-old Prime Minister of Grenada, Dr Keith Mitchell, whose rousing tribute to the late Jamaican Prime Minister and JLP leader Edward Seaga, a highlight of Seaga’s funeral service in Kingston in June, still rings a bell among the Labourites.