PORUS, Manchester — Even as he was predicting that there will be “many surprises” in the September 3 polls, an optimistic Prime Minister and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Dr Andrew Holness on Tuesday placed emphasis on his party retaining the Manchester Southern constituency.

“I keep saying to the pundits and others that this election will have many surprises. The conventional and traditional view as to who will win and who has the edge, all of that is going to be destroyed for one simple reason,” Holness told JLP supporters in Porus while on tour of Manchester Southern and Manchester Central.

“This constituency of south Manchester is one that the Jamaica Labour Party is placing some emphasis on and it is very important that you, the supporters, understand that this is a constituency that we are looking forward to having in the victory column,” he said.

“We will be campaigning in this constituency heavily and strategically, not with too much noise and fanfare. Ultimately we want to get to the voters. We want to talk to the voters directly, and I am certain that our message is a better message,” he added.

Holness said the three issues he believes are at the core of the September 3 polls are “roads, water, and housing”.

“…That is what matters in the election. Only one Government so far has been able to deliver the level of road repairs, road building, and rehabilitation that you see all around the country, and that is the Jamaica Labour Party. Only one Government so far has done the level of work in bringing water into Manchester, and that is the Jamaica Labour Party…” Holness said.

The JLP’s candidate for Manchester Southern, Ian Ives was nominated on Monday, months after he won an internal battle over former Member of Parliament for the constituency Robert Chin and party promoter Adion Peart. Both Chin and Peart were nominated in the constituencies of Clarendon South Western and St Ann South Eastern, respectively, on Monday as JLP candidates.

Chin created a political upset when he unseated Michael Stewart of the PNP by 890 votes in the September 3, 2020 General Election. Chin polled 6,826 votes to Stewart’s 5,936.

Back in 2016 Stewart won the seat comfortably by 1,176 votes — polling 8,398 to the JLP’s Hidran McKulsky’s 7,222.

Chin was parachuted into the constituency as a late replacement for former JLP standard-bearer Junior Robinson who bowed out one week before nomination day.

Prior to the September 2020 General Election, the last time the JLP won Manchester Southern in a contested poll was in 1980. The seat was retained in the snap parliamentary election of 1983 which was not contested by the PNP.

Ives is set to face former Manchester Central MP Peter Bunting, who is now the PNP candidate for Manchester Southern, at the September 3 polls.

Holness, without naming Bunting, took a swipe at the PNP heavyweight who lost to the JLP’s Rhoda Moy Crawford in the 2020 polls. Crawford polled 8,139 votes to Bunting’s 6,989.

“There are those who are trying to show that they have something but it just doesn’t seem realistic because they went somewhere they had their opportunity and they were dismissed. They then tried to come here and the same thing is going to happen to them: They are going to be dismissed by the people,” said Holness.

He reiterated plans to expand the Greater Mandeville Water Supply.

“In our next term we’ll be focusing heavily on bringing water to those communities that now don’t have water, and in particular the communities in Manchester. We have started with the Greater Mandeville Water Supply project, bringing water in from St Elizabeth. We will extend that project into south Manchester to ensure that the communities that are now without water, that they get water,” said Holness.

The prime minister was scheduled to tour parts of Manchester Central with the incumbent, the JLP’s Crawford, before ending with a spot meeting at Alligator Pond in Manchester Southern on Tuesday.