Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

A section of the crowd which turned out at Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay last month to hear Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller as the People's National Party took its general election campaign to the western end of the island. - Adrian Frater photo

IF THERE is going to be a July election, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller must name the date on or before July 9.

According to the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, the piece of legislation that governs the holding of elections, the election must be at least 16 days after Nomination Day or at most 23 days after same.

An announcement by July 9, the latest, would see Jamaicans going to the polls on July 31 after a July 14 Nomination Day, which the law says must be five days after the announcement of an election date.

Some pundits, meanwhile, are not expecting the Prime Minister to wait until next Tuesday to name the date for a July election. In fact, many believe that Mrs. Simpson Miller will call the date on July 4, the birthday of People's National Party (PNP) founder Norman Manley.

As of Friday, the PNP was yet to announce what special activity would mark Mr. Manley's birthday. When the PNP party Chairman Robert Pickersgill was last week asked if the PNP has anything special for that day, he smiled and said "we shall see".

Political analysts are predicting that Mrs. Simpson Miller may name a July date, possibly 26 or 27, as the date for the general election.

So far, on the campaign trail, Mrs. Simpson Miller has not given any indication as to when she will call the elections.

The biggest hint she has given is that, owing to the huge crowds turning out to her party rallies across the country, she will need a big enough place to hold tens of thousands whenever she sounds the trumpet. This has led to the suggestion that the date will be announced at Half-Way Tree square, the place P.J. Patterson announced the last three elections.

Staying away

Mrs. Simpson Miller has already held a meeting in Sam Sharp Square, Montego Bay, but with history and crowd reading not favouring her party's leader there, she may stay away from that location.

When Michael Manley announced the 1980 election at Sam Sharpe square, he looked at the crowd and famously stated "one hundred and fifty thousand strong, can't be wrong".

He was dead wrong as the JLP won 51 of the 60 parliamentary seats.

Last Friday evening, the Prime Minister toured Horace Dalley's North Clarendon seat where she was greeted by thousands.

Last night, she made her second stop in the Corporate Area, a mass meeting in Papine, St. Andrew, where Dr. Trevor Munroe is seeking to unseat the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP's) St. Aubyn Bartlett as MP. The first stop was a mass meeting held in South East St. Andrew where there is an epic battle brewing between the JLP's Joan Gordon-Webley and the PNP's incumbent MP Maxine Henry-Wilson.

Despite boasting at almost every stop that "PNP river come down bank to bank" in reference to the crowd, Mrs. Simpson Miller is yet to send her field to their marks.

However her habitual statement, "Oh, my Comrades, see the signal, waving in the sky, reinforcement now appearing, victory, victory...is nigh" is a clear indication that very soon she will sound the trumpet.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com