People's National Party

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For other uses, see Peoples National Party (disambiguation).

People's Natioanl Party


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Leader	Portia Simpson-Miller
Chairperson
Spokesperson

Established	1938
Headquarters	Kingston,Jamaica

Political ideology	democratic socialism
Possible Caribbean Parliament Groups	{{{caribbeanparliament}}}
International affiliation	Socialist International

Website	PNPjamaica.com

Jamaica
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The People's National Party (PNP) is a democratic socialist Jamaican political party, founded by Norman Manley in 1938. It is the oldest political party in the Anglophone Caribbean and one of the main two political parties in Jamaica. Out of the two major parties, it is considered more to the left than its main rival, the Jamaica Labour Party. They held a majority in the Jamaican Parliament from 1972 to 1980 and, since 1989 to date, again hold a parliamentary majority (the next election is to be held in 2007). The party is member of the Socialist International.

The PNP was defeated in the first universal suffrage elections held in Jamaica in 1944, winning only four of the 32 seats (one elected independent joined the party afterwards). It came to office in 1955, and held office until just before independence in 1962. It was defeated by its principal rival the Jamaica Labour Party. During this period of government it promoted actively reformist social democratic policies, including opening secondary education to many poorer Jamaicans through state funding of scholarships.

Ten years later, under the leadership of its founder's son, Michael Manley, it returned to office committed to democratic socialism and a third-worldist foreign policy. In 1980, the Jamaica Labour Party led by Edward Seaga overwhelmingly defeated it, after several years characterized by inflation and rising unemployment, and in a campaign noteworthy for an alarming level of violence. Manley led the party in a boycott of the snap election called in 1983, and the party was absent from parliament for more than five years.

In 1989 it was returned to office under Manley's leadership. Manley retired from politics in 1992, and was replaced as party leader by Percival Noel James Patterson. Patterson led the PNP to victory in 1993, 1997, and 2002, becoming the first political leader in Jamaican history to win three successive general elections. At the last elections, on 16 October 2002, the party won 52.2% of the popular vote and 34 out of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives. Since its return to office in 1989 it has pursued policies intended to take advantage of globalization, and has substantially moderated or even abandoned the socialist rhetoric of the 1970s. On 26 February 2006, Portia Simpson-Miller was elected as Patterson's successor, becoming the first female president of the PNP and current Prime Minister of Jamaica. The PNP remains in office today.

As electoral symbols, it uses a head and the colour orange.