Jamaica’s leading opposition People’s National Party won a landslide election, according to preliminary results, in a vote driven by concerns about crime, corruption and poverty. The preliminary results indicated the left-leaning party had won 41 out of 63 constituencies, giving it a resounding majority and showing the door to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, 39, the youngest person to hold the top office.
The results were released late Thursday, but within hours of polls closing local media had called the PNP’s victory, and PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller, the designated prime minister, delivered an ecstatic acceptance speech. “You will know everything. We will never hide anything from you. Now you have a government you can trust,” she told jubilant supporters.