THE People’s National Party (PNP) will stage its 88th annual conference over three days this weekend, in two venues, at opposite ends of the island — a move that appears to be a first in the party’s history.

“Instead of the normal public session at the [National] Arena we decided to go to western Jamaica where the effects of [Hurricane] Melissa are still very serious and just to show solidarity with the people there, PNP President Mark Golding told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday after an education grants award ceremony at the party’s Old Hope Road headquarters in St Andrew.

“We’ll be doing a few social things during the course of the day and then we’ll culminate with a rally in Sav-la-Mar. So it’s really just to show solidarity and gratitude to the people of Westmoreland in their struggle to get through this terrible hurricane and the aftermath,” added Golding, who said the move to stage the public session outside the Corporate Area is a first, as far as he is aware.

General Secretary Dayton Campbell explained that the private session of the conference will be held over two days at Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, after which the public session is scheduled for Independence Park, Westmoreland, on Sunday.

“We start at 12:00 am on Friday, September 18 and 10:00 am on Saturday, September 19 at the conference centre… then on Sunday we’re going to the west, because we felt it important to go to the western end of the island — based on the damage to the west by Melissa — to show solidarity with the persons. And so we’ll be having a church service in the morning at Negril New Testament Church of God, after that we’re going into the communities,” Campbell said.

He shared that the party has two projects — one at Race Course and the other in Mount Airy where it will be handing over a house to a beneficiary.

“After that we go to the public session of the conference for a rally at Independence Park in Savanna-la-Mar that will start at about 3:00 pm. We’ll also be doing some other things during the presentation to highlight what is going on in western Jamaica, you know the damage from the hurricane,” Campbell said.

Category 5 Melissa unleashed extensive damage to Westmoreland and other parishes in western Jamaica on October 28 last year.

Both Campbell and Golding pointed out that many hurricane victims have not yet recovered from the effects of the storm.

Noting that in his Westmoreland Eastern constituency 40 per cent of the houses are still covered by tarpaulin, while schools, health centres and roads remain badly damaged, Campbell said “There is a lot of work still to be done.”

He said the party will use the public session to highlight the difficulties being faced by Jamaicans in the west, as well as the challenges being faced by the education and health sectors, in addition to the “significant pressure” on the economy.

Both men said they expect “a good crowd” at the public session, with Campbell pointing out that the conference is coming a year after the September 3, 2025 General Election which the party lost to the Jamaica Labour Party.

“I think we will have a good conference. It’s year one after the elections and so, normally, in year one you’re sort of building back the vibe, but we expect that we’ll have a good conference,” the general secretary said.

— Garfield Robinson