KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party (PNP) this afternoon provided to the country its first digital manifesto, when it launched the “People’s Pledge”.

The document is the work of the manifesto committee of the party, chaired by Vice President Damion Crawford, and technical advisers who have been working since February of this year to fine-tune the document. It was released through a web-based app at votepnp2020.com and can also be accessed using the QR code in newspaper advertisements and on voters’ guides.

The party is promising that the plans laid out in its 2020 manifesto will transform Jamaica at two levels — the people and the nation. The document pledges significant investment in critical groups, including teachers, nurses, the police, the hospitality industry workers, household helpers, and hotel workers, among others. It also addresses substantial barriers to wealth creation, COVID-19 crime and corruption.

The party said the People’s Pledge is also a plan to transform Jamaica by creating the wealth for all Jamaicans. These include strategies to elevate the standard of living, investment in young people, digitising the educational system, delivering comprehensive health insurance to Jamaicans, and a massive expansion of housing and land ownership.

The COVID-19 recovery plan includes economic and health benefits and consists of a government guaranteed two-year mortgage protection programme for the period of the pandemic. The party said the programme will ensure that homeowners will not have their property sold if they fall into arrears during the pandemic, like the one presently being experienced.

Under the mortgage protection programme, the government will be responsible for ensuring that financial regulators do not treat those mortgages as being in default, the PNP added.