Government parliamentarian Juliet Holness on Sunday told cheering Labour Party supporters that Jamaica is “no longer a PNP experiment” as she reeled off a long list of achievements in her nine years as Member of Parliament, for St Andrew East Rural in defence of her bid for re-election.

“When you know how to lead, when you know how to manage, when you have the best team, you see results. And we have, after two terms, seen achievement, after achievement, after achievement,” Holness, who is also the wife of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader and Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, said at a well-attended meeting of her constituency in Kintyre.

According to the two-term MP, in 2016 when the JLP regained power, “Andrew Michael Holness found a country that was on the brink of collapse in many ways.”

She listed some of the current Government’s achievements as paying down the country’s debt which, she noted, freed up funds for, among other things, infrastructure development, including health care.

While reiterating that the People’s National Party (PNP) experiment was over, Holness pointed to record low unemployment achieved under the current Administration.

Highlighting that she is in the construction industry, Holness said she recalled a time when construction sites were filled with men hanging out by the gate looking for work.

“You tell me how much site you pass now and yuh see even one somebody outside, stand up a look work. That is what it means when you have a good and caring Government and yuh can move your unemployment rate down to 3.3 per cent. Not even labourers you can find that are unskilled. Yuh can’t even find unskilled workers to do work today,” she said.

Holness also pointed to the more than 45 per cent reduction in murders this year as another reason why the JLP deserves a third-consecutive, and even a fourth, term in office. She asserted that the JLP is the party that genuinely cares, the party that grows the country, the party that builds what is good for Jamaica.

Appealing to a broader support base, she told Jamaicans, “You know what is good for Jamaica, you know what is good for your parish, you know what is good for your constituency, you know what is good for your division, your community, and your own family. Jamaicans, you know what is good for you. Make the right choice.”

She urged Jamaicans to vote JLP on election day and “not to think for a minute that they [PNP] can do what we can do. Dem cyaan manage the work”.

Specific to her constituency, Holness reeled off a long list of achievements, including roads and bridges fixed and water projects implemented. She also talked up her efforts in aiding farmers with projects for strawberry and winter vegetables. “We produce more Irish potato than anywhere in Jamaica,” she boasted.

A long list of speakers, including her husband, declared her to be the best political representative the sprawling constituency has ever seen as they made the case for her re-election.

Political watchers have indicated that Holness is in a tough battle with the PNP’s Patrick Peterkin as she tries to hold onto the seat. The attorney-at-law, who is looking to make his foray into representational politics, has reportedly made serious inroads in the swing constituency which the PNP is targeting as it seeks to return to power.

Jamaica Labour Party supporters in a jubilant mood at the party’s St Andrew East Rural constituenncy conference on Sunday.