JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament for St Andrew North Central Karl Samuda appealed to fellow Labourites on Sunday not to depend too heavily on social media campaigns to win votes in local government and general elections.

Samuda was speaking at the JLP’s Norbrook Division conference at Constant Spring Primary and Junior High School in St Andrew.

“Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can help but it cannot make you win a seat. Some people believe that exposing their image constantly on a phone will make them sufficiently popular to win votes. It will expose your name, but what will make you succeed is to walk and greet the people, eat with the people, and sleep with the people if you have to.

“Pretty pictures won’t cut it. If it was a question of who could paste up more posters, I would lose. When I ran I won by 5,800 votes in 1980. The point is, treat the people with respect, and show them the love you have for them in your heart; you don’t have to run and kiss up everybody,” the veteran MP told JLP candidates and representatives.

Samuda encouraged JLP representatives and supporters to rally behind leader of the party and prime minister, Andrew Holness. He described Holness as the finest leader Jamaica has seen since it gained Independence in 1962.

“He is a polite, kind person who is not boastful and braggadocious. He is a determined person who works endlessly on behalf of the people. When you see him get emotional on the mic, that is born from a deep feeling for the country he represents. I will follow Andrew Holness to the very ends of the earth,” he said while encouraging representatives to embrace Jamaicans, whether they support the JLP or the People’s National Party.

Meanwhile, the 80-year-old Samuda, who has served St Andrew North Central for more than half his life, said that he will not step down until a suitable successor is chosen by the people.

“It has been a wonderful journey. I am not as young as I used to be physically. I am mentally alert today as I have ever been but I recognise that there comes a time when you have to create new leaders. People ask all the time, ‘What are you doing about your successor?’ I tell them that I am waiting on my successor. I am going nowhere!

“My successor must present himself to the good people of North Central St Andrew. It is not my decision; it is the decision of the people. A true democrat does not impose himself on the people. I can influence, but I will not interfere. Anyone who has the capacity to lead the constituents in a manner of respect and concern about how they live, the upward mobility for their children, how they are educated, and if they are going to take their rightful place in building a new Jamaica [is a true democrat].”