Daraine's campaign log - Trailing the Portia Train

AFTER 13 weeks trailing the 'Portia Train', I have witnessed the mood of the People's National Party (PNP) swing from buoyancy to cautious optimism.

When the party kick-started its election campaign on May 22, it seemed to have barely stepped on the accelerator. But by July 8 when the general election date was announced in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew, its temperature had climbed to fever pitch.

The PNP seemed convinced that it was winning the election, even after the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) staged a massive meeting in Mandeville.

PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller continually promised her party that she was going to "whip the man", in reference to Bruce Golding.

However, even though she maintained this stance, the tone of the campaign changed to suggest that the party was hopeful, but not overwhelmingly confident of election victory.

From the Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls and anecdotal evidence, it was clear that the PNP had a great deal of work to do on the ground if they were going to win the election.

Comrades call Mrs. Simpson Miller on the ground the 'Portia Train', a machinery that is supposed to further provide the country with the 'Portia factor' and more.

But how successful it has been, we will not know until tomorrow night. The PNP president, however, has her own ideas about how the election will go.

"They thought they have it lock. Now Portia is on the road and they can't tek it. Wi have dem under manners! Wi have dem under manners!" the Portia Train said at almost every stop.

The messiah

Mrs. Simpson Miller was like the Messiah to PNP supporters, who reacted to her like wild fire.

For the most part, Mrs. Simpson Miller's presentations were predictable. Aside from the rhetoric of comparing and contrasting herself with Mr. Golding, sending to find out how many houses Mr. Golding had built as Minister of Housing in the 1980s and criticising JLP advertisements, the Prime Minister attempted to speak to issues from the platform.

Her party's 'solid achievements' and vision for Jamaica were articulated, but more often than not, it was the rhetoric that rocked the crowd and made the headlines.

Many persons watched the campaign for signs of political fallout since the presidential election in February 2006. Not even the slightest signal came. They were like Trojans by their leader's side.

Maxine Henry-Wilson, K.D. Knight and PNP vice-president Peter Phillips stood tall. Likewise, the turncoat Labourite Verna Parchment travelled with Mrs. Simpson Miller and helped in badgering the JLP.

Mr. Phillips used every chance at the microphones to tell Comrades how serious the election was to Jamaica's development.

"We can't afford to take any chances," he said in one instance. "No experiments!"

Intercepted only by Hurricane Dean and a week of prayer between July 31 and August 7, the Portia Train rolled into almost every corner of Jamaica.

Trailing the Portia Train was not the smoothest of rides for The Gleaner news team. In North Clarendon, we picked up a punctured tyre.

Flat tyre

The spare tyre was also flat and it was God's guiding hand that took us from Kellits to Chapelton where a man with a hand pump inflated the tyre in the dead of night.

And if that was not enough, the car's radiator burst in the Glengoffe Hills, where Mrs. Simpson Miller and Phyllis Mitchell led a tour of North East St. Catherine.

Along the way, only a few children missed out on a kiss and a hug from the Prime Minister. Others got memorabilia - T-shirts, wristbands, necklaces.

In Manchester, one young child shouted: "Mi can't vote yet, but a Portia."

In Swallowfield, St. Andrew, I recall seeing two young girls perched atop a wall. One shouted, "Portia!" and the Prime Minister, who was getting into her vehicle, turned back in order to hug and kiss the toddler.

The other child, in a timid voice, was more concerned with whether Mrs. Simpson Miller's hair was real. "May I touch you hair please?" she asked the Prime Minister, who responded, "Sure, my dear," before granting the child's wish.

Not even the bad roads in most areas of rural Jamaica prevented Mrs. Simpson Miller, nor did it prevent tens of thousands of Jamaicans from meeting the Comrade leader whom former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said did not only represent the PNP's best hope, but also its "only hope" of being returned as government.

Turned on lights

Portia not only hugged and kissed, but turned on lights where there were no street lights; she turned on water where there was none; she presented to Comrades and sympathisers a picture that she was the hope and change agent for Jamaica.

Time and time again, Mrs. Simpson Miller told her Comrades that Mr. Golding was trying to be like her.

"They criticise mi. They seh I hug and kiss too much. An all of a sudden, dem deh fallow back a mi and try hug an kiss to. An a fallow back a mi, an a falla backa mi, a falla back a mi, a falla backa mi," Portia reiterated in Kellits, Horace Dalley's North Clarendon constituency, shortly after turning on lights in some sections of theparish.

In areas where the PNP incumbent MP candidates have been adjudged to be non- or mild performers, some persons cut their candidate's face off their shirts. Some tried to be too cute when Mrs. Simpson Miller was in town. Harry Douglas declared her as a saint, but Mrs. Simpson Miller told him flatly she would not accept.

"I am no saint," she said in Port Maria. "If you trouble me, I am going to respond."

While the party, on the surface, did not appear to be panicking, anecdotal and scientific evidence painted some 40 men and women holding unto Portia's skirt as she attempt to run up a big hill.

Some members have said that it can win up to 42 seats. However, despite overwhelming support for Portia on the ground, the 42 seats would be more than possible if the children who Portia kissed, hugged and gave memorabilia could vote.

Tomorrow is the day of reckoning, and the verdict is out on whether Portia, who was promoted to open the innings by the PNP delegates last year March, has played a captain's knock.

Daraine.Luton@gleanerjm.com