Jamaica Election Day Set For December 29th

Jamaicans will vote on December 29 in the country’s 16th general election since Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the date on Sunday night at a rally in Mandeville square attended by tens of thousands of screaming, bell-ringing, flag-waving, supporters of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who transformed the usually quiet central Jamaica town into a noisy sea of green — the JLP’s colour. Nomination day, he said, will be December 12.

The square of the Manchester parish capital, Mandeville,was transformed into hectares of green, while other Jamaicans waited eagerly elsewhere for the announcement that would transform the island 's 2.8 million inhabitants and those in the diaspora, amounting to millions.

After holding back when party supporters expected him to announce the date during the JLP's annual conference at the National Arena on November 20, and further speculation that the date would be unveiled last Wednesday in Mandeville, Holness left no doubt tonight.

The announcement comes almost 24 hours after the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) unveiled its slate of 63 candidates at a mass meeting in Cross Roads, St Andrew, Saturday evening.

It is believed that Mandeville was chosen as the preferred venue to announce the date of the election, as the JLP wants to give its candidate Danville Walker a fillip when he goes up against the PNP's general secretary Peter Bunting in Manchester Central, of which Mandeville is the main town.