THE contest to elect the sixth president of the People’s National Party (PNP) is now officially under way following the closure of the nomination period yesterday.

As was anticipated, it will be a straight sprint between 45-year-old Lisa Rene Hanna and 55-year-old Mark Jefferson Golding.

Hanna was nominated on Wednesday, and then yesterday, in persistent rain, Golding, an attorney-at-law and investment banker, completed his nomination.

Despite the rain, scores of Golding supporters turned out at the party’s Old Hope Road, St Andrew, headquarters in solidarity with the man they say is the one to return the PNP to its former glory following its 49-14 drubbing in the last general election.

Following his nomination, including the payment of the $100,000 nomination fee, Golding told members of the media that he was ready for victory so he can begin the process of the unification and rebuilding of the PNP, to make it strong and ready to resume its mission in Government after the next election.

“I am very confident that we will pull it off. We have been doing our work on the ground, we have been checking the numbers, and we are very comfortable where we are now, and we just have to run through the tape,” added Golding, to cheers from the 24 people who nominated him.

With scores of supporters donning masks and braving the rain, an upbeat Golding welcomed their presence for what he described as a historic occasion.

“Comrades, the process towards the seventh of November is well and truly under way. We have been doing our work. We have been meeting with the delegates. We have been reaching out. We have been speaking to the people of Jamaica through the media. We have been singing our song of hope and redemption for the People’s National Party, and Comrades, the future is bright,” said Golding.

“We know we have come from a very low place on the third of September, but the future is bright [and] hope springs eternal. And Comrades, when we resume the mission on the seventh of November, it will be the reunification of the party — one party moving forward with a common purpose.

“There will be no place in the PNP for any factions or divisions. This is why my team has on it persons who didn’t support the same side as me last year, and I am proud that we are putting unity into practice already, because that is going to be the way we will recover, going forward… as a democratic party,” added Golding.

He told his supporters that it was clear that there is work to be done to return the PNP to its original standing.

“We have to rebuild our party from the base. You are aware, and would have heard some of our plans and programmes that we want to bring to the party and the party workers for their benefit, to re-energise them and to show them some love, and that the party cares about them.

“Comrades, the word is love. Jamaica needs the great People’s National Party,” declared Golding, as he pointed to some of the measures implemented by the party over the years.

“Comrades, we must resume our mission. The people of Jamaica need a strong united People’s National Party. So Comrades, it is with a deep sense of humility that I say to you, ‘Follow me with your blessing on the seventh of November. Go with Golding’,” he charged the cheering supporters as the music selectors blasted the Bob Marley and the Wailers classic Trench Town Rock.

Trench Town is located in the St Andrew Southern constituency represented by Golding.