Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

AFTER two consecutive days of closed-door meetings, the governing People's National Party (PNP) yesterday emerged singing a victory song, confident of notching an unpre-cedented fifth consecutive term in power.

Speaking to journalists at the end of yesterday's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston, the party hierarchy said the Portia Simpson Miller administration was ready for the election.

"I am very confident and the People's National Party is very confident," she said.

Simpson Miller, who succeeded P.J. Patterson last year, refused to divulge a possible election date until "the appropriate time".

A bluff

The Prime Minister also called Opposition Leader Bruce Golding's clamour for elections a bluff.

The most recent Bill Johnson polls, commissioned by The Gleaner, has the PNP leading the JLP by seven points and Simpson Miller has said that the party has just begun to "rev the engine".

The PNP had convened a meeting of the candidates and campaign managers on Saturday, at which time Patterson told them not to be apologetic about the party's achievements over the years.

Yesterday, Comrades who exited the Conference Centre said they were charged up, one telling The Gleaner "there is no turning back now".

Encouraging signs

Meanwhile, the party's campaign director, Dr. Paul Robertson, who informed the Comrades about their showing thus far, told journalists that the party hierarchy is "very encouraged by what we have seen".

The party has conducted some 56 polls, inclusive of three national polls. The last national poll was conducted in May, but Dr. Robertson could not say if another will be conducted before the election. He, however, said the party is very encouraged by the results.

"I am never comfortable about any election. Until you have counted every last ballot, you can't be sure, but I am very confident," Dr. Robertson said.

He, however, refused to predict the number of seats the PNP is expecting to win and had described as "ridiculous" talk that the party was in panic mode.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com