PNP confident of victory
Published:Wednesday | December 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
By Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
Dr Peter Phillips, the campaign director for the People's National Party (PNP), is declaring his party will win a minimum of 37 seats in tomorrow's general election.
Addressing a press conference called by the PNP at its Old Hope Road, St Andrew, headquarters, Phillips said a recent poll was conducted by a well-known pollster which called 28 seats for the PNP and 23 for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). The pollster, he claimed, said he was unable to call 12 seats.
"The PNP, according to (the pollster), is leading in the 12 constituencies which he is unable to call," Phillips said.
Phillips said: "I am not going to name any particular seat, suffice it to say that we are confident of holding what we have now and we have identified at least nine other seats that we will win for the People's National Party, including some of the new seats."
The PNP won 28 of the 60 seats in 2007 while the JLP won 32. The party is under pressure to hold the two Hanover seats, East Portland, Central Manchester and South St James.
The Gleaner's political team has predicted the JLP will win 34 of the 63 seats, while the PNP will win 29.
Phillips, while pointing to the last Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll - conducted on December 17 and 18 - which indicated a two percentage point lead for the PNP, said the party was confident of victory and that he was aware of predictions "which are not in keeping with the realities on the ground".
Said Phillips: "We will be doing everything on election day to prove the naysayers wrong."
Meanwhile, the PNP's election campaign officially ended yesterday after party President Portia Simpson Miller toured sections of St James and Westmoreland, hosted a spot meeting in West Central St Andrew and toured South West St Andrew.
Simpson Miller said the party was confident it would be successful at the polls based on "the people's acceptance of our message that the PNP, based on its record of performance and the plans we have articulated for the future, is the party to govern Jamaica and return it to sustained economic growth and prosperity".