Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

MIKE HENRY has predicted that the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will win five of the six seats in Clarendon in the next general election.

Henry, Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Clarendon, made the remark at a South West Clarendon fund-raising dinner held at Hotel Four Seasons in St. Andrew on Saturday night.

"We have put five seats in the bag at this stage, the other one needs a bit of work," said Henry, while assuring Laurie Broderick that he was ahead of Horace Dalley in Northern Clarendon. Henry declined to state the seat in which the JLP was trailing.

Based on the slate of candidates put forward so far by both parties, the JLP's incumbent MP Pearnel Charles will square off against Ralph Thomas in Clarendon North Central; Rudyard Spencer, MP for Clarendon South East, faces off with Scean Barnswell; PNP MP Richard Azan will challenge Michael Stern in Clarendon North West; and Joel Williams and the PNP's Noel Arscott clash in the parish's North West constituency.

Both parties scored three seats apiece in Clarendon in the 2002 parliamentary vote, with Henry, Spencer and Charles winning for the JLP, and Azan, Dalley and Charles Learmond triumphing on the PNP ticket.

Henry, who is being challenged by Dr. Neil McGill, the incumbent MP in West St. Mary, said his campaign is being bolstered by the PNP.

"I do know that the PNP candidate running against me is doing a good job of funding my campaign.

"He is spending a lot of money on the corners, 60 per cent of it comes back to me and 40 per cent stays with the people," Henry argued.

Meanwhile, Henry said he was confident that Williams would wrest Clarendon North West from the PNP, which he considers "the toughest seat to win for the Jamaica Labour Party in Clarendon".

South West Clarendon is now being represented by the PNP's Charles Learmond, who beat Williams by 1,954 votes in the 2002 General Election.

Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, who gave the main address, told Labourites that a big election victory is near.

"It is beginning to look like 1980 all over again," Golding said.

He went on to say that while the PNP may have been traditionally strong in some constituencies, the JLP has made inroads and will spring some big surprises.

"The 'hardcoreness', if I may call it that, of communities is breaking down," Golding said of the so-called strongholds of the ruling party.

The JLP leader also said that the feedback on the ground now is similar to that during the JLP landslide victory in the October 1980 General Election, with 51 seats to the PNP's nine.