Jamaica’s three most recent general elections were held in February 2016, September 2020, and September 2025, and the People’s National Party (PNP) was defeated in all three. Our most recent local government elections were held in November 2016 and February 2024, and the PNP lost both. The PNP seems well on its way to becoming the natural party of opposition in this country. The irony is loud.

The PNP was considered the party of natural choice for a long time — so long that 89 Old Hope Road boasted that Jamaica was “PNP country”. Many in the PNP — far too many — became very haughty. They were drunk on personal and political hubris. They and their confederates got it into their heads that the PNP’s position at the top of our political totem pole was guaranteed in perpetuity.

They were very wrong. These are the realities of local politics today. The era when it was perceived and largely accepted that the PNP was the party of natural choice is over.

Still, our political totem pole has become slippery. Some in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would do well to understand that reality. I will examine the specifics of that in another piece.

OUT OF DATE!

In Western liberal democracies like Jamaica’s, a major political party does much more than simply lick its wounds and shout “woe is me” after back-to-back defeats in national electoral contests, especially successive ones. Such defeats are always followed by a deep reckoning; an extensive review using a big-tent approach, followed by a refreshing of tone, personnel, and a new policy outlook. It’s de rigueur.

I don’t see any evidence that this process is happening — or is about to happen — in the PNP. Maybe it hasn’t dawned on the PNP that its defeat in the September 3, 2025 General Election was the third-straight national rejection.

As I see it, Mark Golding, PNP president and Opposition leader, has effectively become a political Santa Claus. He gives Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the JLP a gift nearly every time he opens his mouth in the political arena.

Under Golding’s leadership, the PNP has — to me — been reduced to a veritable parliamentary curiosity. It is analytically lazy. Many on the Opposition benches seem to foolishly believe that the age and history of Norman Manley’s party can insulate it from political atrophy. They are very wrong. The fact is the PNP’s brand has withered. It is on life support.

Three-straight general election defeats are a clear signal that the PNP is headed in the wrong direction. I anticipate some will say, “But, Higgins, the PNP came close on September 3, 2025. They almost won.”

Newsflash! Almost is of no moment in our first-past-the-post electoral system.

For those who don’t understand that system, let me illustrate. In our general and parish council elections, the candidate with the most votes in each constituency/division becomes the Member of Parliament (MP) for a constituency or councillor for a parish council/division. And candidates from other parties get nothing. This is how the first-past-the-post system, which we inherited from the United Kingdom, works.

Incidentally, parish councils were recently rebranded as municipal corporations.

Three-straight general election defeats mean the PNP is yesterday’s party, trying to be relevant today. As I see it, the PNP is being led by yesterday’s man, similarly trying to be relevant today.

“OK, Higgins, so what should Golding do?” some will inquire.

To me, the answer is obvious: He should resign. Golding seems to be buying time, hoping that his authority will increase — this after losing a local government election and a general election just over a year apart. I get the sense that Golding is doing the political equivalent of a man who sits under his neighbour’s mango tree hoping that a ripe juicy mango — which he has been eyeing for a long time — will simply fall right into his lap. Golding and the PNP have been waiting for an event that will topple the ruling JLP for the last five and a half years. It has not happened.

If the governing JLP — minus a few hotheads and one or two incompetents — continues to safeguard the mango tree, Golding and the PNP will continue to wait in vain, much like Bob Marley.

Given Golding’s posture for the last five years, he is very unlikely to wrestle the keys to Jamaica House from Andrew Holness and the JLP. Given Golding’s unchanging political posture, he is effectively wielding an axe against the PNP, I think. He is not an anchor. He is dead weight. Under his leadership the PNP’s identity has faded; its raison d’être is weak, and its voice is near lifeless.

OUT OF TIME

Those who were expecting the PNP to turn over a new leaf in a brand new year were sorely disappointed by the characteristic sameness that unfolded at the party’s first presser recently.

Understandably this and similar banner headlines was blood in the political waters: ‘UHWI calls in fraud squad… Auditor general reports procurement, contract breaches totalling millions of dollars’. This January 14, 2026 Jamaica Observer news item said, among other things: “The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) board of management on Tuesday said it has reported to the police fraud squad and Jamaica Customs specific matters from the Auditor General’s Department’s (AGD) audit report which flagged the hospital for a raft of contract procurement breaches and misuse of its tax-exempt status for the benefit of private companies, which have cost the country hundreds of millions of dollars.

“The board made the revelation hours after the AGD’s audit performance report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, said its probe ‘revealed considerable deficiencies in UHWI’s governance, procurement, and contract management processes’ which, if not addressed, ‘could increase the risk of corruption and undermine UHWI’s ability to deliver quality health care services’.”

Even amateur political watchers knew this revelation would send political sharks circling. Unsurprisingly, the PNP called a press conference. It seems that some time before Mark Golding and his team faced the media microphones they had ingested a mega-dose of their usual moral tonic — accountability, transparency, and integrity. But that tonic only works when circulation isn’t blocked by a certain fluid called political credibility.

As I detailed here previously, Golding’s statements, especially on the political hustings, have already crippled both his and the PNP’s political circulation. What they really need now is a political credibility thinner.

Golding, at the mentioned presser, said he wanted a full investigation into allegations of corruption at UHWI, regardless of who may be implicated. In responding to questions about the alleged involvement of one his own in the alleged use by the UHWI for its tax-exempt status to purchase equipment for private business people, Golding exclaimed, “Let the chips fall where they may!”

Golding wants well-thinking Jamaicans to buy into the notion that he is comfortably stuffed to bursting with the political nourishment of accountability, transparency, and integrity. If that were so, why has Golding not asked the individual in his party — whom he says he has had talks with — to step aside until the UHWI investigations are complete?

At the mentioned presser, Golding said that the party cannot act on any allegations without a thorough ventilation of the facts. Golding’s brand of accountability, transparency, and integrity seems to be conveniently blind in one eye.

In this space, I previously pointed to instances in which Golding called for political fire and brimstone to fall on persons in the JLP who had allegations hanging over their heads. Damnation and fiery judgement in those instances curiously omitted the requirement for a “thorough ventilation of the facts” — a necessity which Golding applies generously to individuals in the PNP who are fingered in public misdeeds.

Gaping inconsistencies in Golding’s and the PNP’s calls for accountability, transparency, and integrity are among the major reasons they are still in Opposition. “Tom drunk but Tom nuh fool.:

We live in a world in which information is available at the press of a button for most Jamaicans.
Google never sleeps. These are realities the PNP doesn’t get.

I, like other well-thinking Jamaicans, want a quick and thorough investigation into the allegations at UHWI. The sunlight of public scrutiny must not miss any crevices or corners. Those who fell down on the job must face the music.

In his swearing-in speech on September 16, 2025, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness said among other things: “We will make Jamaica the most efficient and least corrupt jurisdiction to do business. We will make Jamaica a socially just and equitable place, and we will claim our rightful place among the leading nations of the world. This is our destiny. This is our charge. This is our moment.”

If this commitment is not reinforced by quick and principled action then the prime minister’s words are “like sounding brass and tinkling cymbals”.

But back to the mentioned PNP presser: Golding and the PNP spokespersons did not look competent or fresh. They need to focus less on predictable political optics and more on honest tactics. Political theatrics are for their fan club at political rallies attended by mostly rabid Comrades. On the national stage, well-thinking Jamaicans do not award brownie points to political parties for their ability to demonstrate tribal reflex. Even amateurs in the political vineyard would have recognised that the mentioned presser was a bad media moment for 89 Old Hope Road.

Rabid supporters on social media, who are praising the presser as a master class, need to understand that the absence of support from well-thinking Jamaicans means the class was empty. As I see it, the presser was devoid of a narrative arc. It had no rising action and no grand climax. If he is to be taken seriously on the national stage, Golding needs to present himself less like a partisan hostage and more like a credible prime minister-in-waiting.

LEARN THE CRAFT!

As I see it, before Golding can be seriously considered as Jamaica’s prime minister-in-waiting, he needs to fully grasp how to be an effective leader of the Opposition. Experts say it’s a craft.

Sometime ago I noted here that the “pricking of political blood”, a term coined by British politician Roy Jenkins, was not always wise. I don’t believe the PNP and Mark Golding understand this. Anyway, the PNP has been bombarding social and traditional media with salvos about the governing JLP needing to give a full account of all funds that it received to facilitate recovery post-Hurricane Melissa. I have no challenge with that. Here is the fly in the PNP’s ointment, though, the PNP cannot credibly rain blows on the Government when, three and a half months after the hurricane it cannot answer specific questions about how much money was donated through its website and whether those funds have been used. Moral rectitude is made of sterner stuff.

Garfield Higgins is an educator and journalist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or higgins160@yahoo.com.

Garfield Higgins

Dejected People’s National Party (PNP) supporters listen as party President Mark Golding concedes defeat in the September 3, 2025 General Election at PNP headquarters in St Andrew.Photo: Naphtali Junior

This woman takes an ussie of herself and president of the People’s National Party Mark Golding during nomination day activities. Golding was nominated as the PNP’s candidate for the St Andrew Southern constituency at St Luke’s Church in Cross Roads. Naphtali Junior