By Laura Matthews: Subscribe to Laura's RSS feed
December 30, 2011 5:18 AM EST
Updated on Jan. 5 at 7:09 a.m. ET: Jamaica Elections: Portia Simpson Miller Takes Oath of Office Thursday
Jamaica's opposition People's National Party (PNP) secured an upsetting 41- to 22-seat victory over the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) in Thursday's general elections, dispelling polls that had claimed the election would have been too close to call.
The stunning victory for the PNP now means that its president, Portia Simpson Miller, 66, will return to the prime minister position, which she held before for only 18 months. Simpson Miller lost the premiership four years ago when the PNP was voted out of government.
In 2007, the JLP won the general election after securing 32 of 60 seats in the House while the PNP took home the remaining 28.
The PNP was able to secure almost two-thirds of the parliamentary seats because the people have said they needed a change from the reported bad economy, Jamaica's growing debt problems and high unemployment rate.
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Simpson Miller now faces the mammoth task of righting a debt that is approximately 130 percent of GDP and an unemployment rate that is more than 12 percent, according to the BBC.
"We have plenty of work ahead of us," Simpson Miller said in a nationally televised address at the PNP headquarters in Kingston.
Newcomers
Simpson miller intends to carry out that work with several newcomers expected to sit in Parliament.
The newcomers include Damion Crawford, Arnaldo Brown, Lloyd B. Smith, Lynvale Bloomfield, Andre Hylton, Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams, Patrick Atkinson, Denise Daley, Mickael Phillips, Paul Buchanan, Dayton Campbell, Keith Walford, Richard Parchment and Joylan Silvera.
Former PNP Parliamentarians Horace Dalley and Richard Azan have returned, according to the local media.
Simpson Miller has pledged that there will be "growth and development with job creation," according to Reuters. She also noted that there is a massive debt burden and that there is possible new austerity measures that's a part of a $1.27 billion bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund, Reuters noted.
"We will hide nothing from you," Simpson Miller said. "When it is tough and rough we'll let you know. But I can also ensure you, as we move to balance the books, we will be moving to balance people's lives as well."
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