Last night, the PNP launched its manifesto at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

Below is the full address of PNP President Mark Golding: 

Jamaica stands at a decisive moment in our journey of nationhood. The People’s National Party team is ready for the mission ahead, and I am honoured to be entrusted with the historic task of leadership. I respectfully seek your support and pledge to respect it by working hard and honestly for you every single day.

While the macroeconomic numbers have improved steadily since 2013 due to bipartisan commitment to a sustained programme of fiscal reform, the daily reality faced by our people is very different. Wages cannot stretch, prices rise daily, basic public services are substandard, young people have too few opportunities, and communities across our country are trapped in poverty, crime, and neglect. Stability in the public finances without quality of life for the people is not prosperity, and this is why the people are clamouring for change.

We understand both the progress and the pain, because we have walked this road with you. We were the architects of Jamaica’s celebrated macroeconomic reforms, from the key elements of the Fiscal Responsibility Framework to the modernisation of the revenue system, bringing the nation’s debt under control and allowing a regime of inflation targeting to be introduced.

Prior to that, our Party initiated the fundamental social reforms that decolonised Jamaican society, and created lasting programmes like PATH for our most vulnerable, the National Health Fund to support affordable healthcare, and JADEP for our seniors. We built institutions like the NHT and the JUTC, and modern infrastructure like the major highways, expanded seaports and airports, and we enabled investments in modern telecommunications and the transition to renewable energy through Wigton Wind Farm and the large solar projects.

But the benefits of national development have not reached far enough. Interior roads in every parish are in deplorable condition. Many communities do not have access to water in their homes. Urban blight and decay plague our cities, while rural Jamaica has been left behind. Farm roads are impassable, irrigation is inadequate and outdated, and farmers lack the tools, machinery and support systems to produce and prosper.

This manifesto is our plan for a new chapter built on our vision—JAMAICA LOVE. It stands on ten pillars: Justice for All, Access to Quality Education, Modern Infrastructure, Agriculture and Food Security, Innovation and Industry, Care for the Vulnerable, Accountability in Governance, Land and Housing, Opportunity for Youth, Violence Prevention, and Environmental Resilience.

These pillars are a compass. They will guide us to invest in people, close the gaps between uptown and downtown, between tourism zones and rural parishes—between the well-connected few who thrive while the majority feel neglected and dejected. We will protect economic stability and leverage it into inclusive and sustainable growth, creating a new era of opportunities for those who are now excluded from prosperity while tackling corruption and the abuse of power in governance.

Jamaica, Time Come to lift our country higher and build a future that belongs to all of us. Let us take this journey together.