Despite its socialist past, under Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller the People’s National Party embraced spending cuts, wage-freezes and harsh fiscal discipline as a part of a $1.27 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
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Tthe Jamaican Labour Party won or was ahead in 33 of 63 parliamentary seats with nearly all the votes counted.
Labour Party (JLP) has been declared victor of the 2016 General Elections after unseating the People’s National Party (PNP) at the polls.
Andrew Holness will be retaking the reins of power in the neighbouring country of Jamaica after his party claimed victory following Thursday’s general election and in light of the early results.
“We will grow the Jamaican economy”. We will create jobs.
“We are going to change the way government works”.
“Our mission is to move Jamaica from poverty to prosperity”, he said as supporters rang bells, a party symbol.
Days before the elections the PNP was expected to win, but the JLP gained momentum as the elections drew closer.
Mr. Holness won his West Central St. Andrew constituency, while Mrs. Simpson Miller won her seat in South West St. Andrew. With discontent high among Jamaicans over high crime and a poor economy, turnout was around 47 percent.
Simpson-Miller, 70, is Jamaica’s first female head of state. During her tenure, inflation has fallen to a 48-year low.
But unemployment is high at around 13 per cent overall and a whopping 38 per cent for the young.
That proposal was rubbished by the PNP, with Simpson Miller warning that the plan would destroy the economy.
The winning party will form the cabinet and its leader will be sworn in as the new prime minister. Thwaites said in an interview with local television.
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Mr. Holness has served as prime minister in the past, taking over the leadership of his party for a short time in 2011 after his predecessor, Bruce Golding, resigned when rioting in Kingston followed the extradition of the drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the US.
