MANDEVILLE, Manchester — General secretary of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Dr Horace Chang says the party intends to break the “history” of allowing the People’s National Party (PNP) to regain power and “ruining the gains made” by his party in Government.

“A PNP man said to me the other day, ‘Everytime JLP fix the Government uno give it back to PNP to mash it up,’” Chang told Labourites at a party meeting in Manchester Central.

He said that each time the JLP took office and improved the country’s economy, the PNP, on its return to office erodes those gains. He pointed to period when Hugh Shearer (now deceased) was prime minister, saying that Shearer’s Government did a great job as “the country was growing, booming”.

However, the PNP was returned to power in 1972 and it fell a part.

“You couldn’t even get food in the supermarket,” Chang said.

He also pointed to the restoration of the country after it was ravaged by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

“[Prime Minister Edward] Seaga took three months to put back every light post, light up the country, and get the country running. They voted him out, and after [that] it was Finsac [Financial Sector Adjustment Company] under PNP, business lockdown. People commit suicide, because their good-good business mash up. Unemployment rose. The country [was] in a serious condition,” charged Chang.

He told his audience that they should prepare, over the next three weeks, for the parliamentary election by doing canvassing.

“Andrew Holness has started a programme building this country to be a safe and prosperous society. [We] can’t turn it back now, can’t stop this now. I have been travelling across several constituencies and I get a sense that the Labourites are coming together and we are ready for the fight,” said Chang.

He urged JLP supporters not to take the upcoming election lightly and to ensure they secure victory for Manchester Central Member of Parliament Rhoda Crawford, who is expected to face the PNP’s Donovan Mitchell, the current mayor of Mandeville.

“All I ask you, and I repeat to my friend, don’t take anything for granted. I need you to assure Ms Rhoda Crawford — Member of Parliament (MP), first young lady to [win] this constituency among the dynamic females of 2020 who came to Parliament — that you are all going to go out there,” said Chang.

Former three-term Manchester Central MP, the PNP’s Peter Bunting, lost to Crawford in the September 3, 2020 General Election. Crawford polled 8,139 votes over Bunting’s 6,989 votes.

Chang urged JLP supporters to spread the message of what the Government has done for the country as he argued that some people might have forgotten.

“Go and find your voters and know your voters… I want you, over the next three weeks, in fact… you go look for them now… You start talk to them now, because some people memory short. Some listen to some fool-fool argument. Some look on TikTok. Some look on YouTube and they look at it for five minutes and listen to all kinds of foolishness and don’t understand [that] it is propaganda… All I ask you to do is find them, check them, certify them… you’re going to bring them out. We must not have any surprise election morning,” said Chang.

“You have time to do it, because we [are] not calling the election yet… We are still in budget time. Prepare, like the good book tells you, those who prepare for the time they are the ones who are rewarded. Preparation is key… Andrew Holness’s Government is the best Government and has good management and is a caring Government that must be returned to continue the job of which we have started,” declared Chang.