The PNP was founded in 1938 by the Honourable Osmond Theodore Fairclough, and is the oldest political party in Jamaica. It is one of the country's main two political parties, and is considered more to the left than its main rival the Jamaica Labour Party. Fairclough recruited the PNP's first leader Norman Manley. The party held a majority of seats in the parliament of colonial Jamaica from 1955 until 1962. Following independence in 1962, it held the majority of seats in the Jamaican Parliament from 1972 to 1980, from 1989 to 2007, and from 2011 to 2016. The PNP was defeated in the first universal elections held in Jamaica in 1944, winning only four of the 32 seats. It came to office again in 1955, and held office until just before independence in 1962. 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 Norman Manley's son Michael Manley, it returned to office committed to democratic socialism and a foreign policy focused on strengthening relations with the Global South. In 1980, after several years characterised by inflation and rising unemployment, the JLP led by Edward Seaga overwhelmingly defeated the PNP in a campaign noteworthy for its alarming level of violence. Manley led the party in a boycott of the snap election called in 1983. The party was absent from parliament for more than five years. The PNP was returned to office under Manley's leadership in 1989. He retired from politics in 1992, and was replaced as party leader by P. J. 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. In the 2002 election, held on 16 October 2002, the party won 52.2% of the popular vote and 34 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives. On 26 February 2006, Portia Simpson-Miller was elected as Patterson's successor, becoming the first female president of the PNP, and became the Prime Minister of Jamaica. The PNP lost the August 2007 election to the JLP and its leader Bruce Golding. In the 29 December 2011 general election, the PNP was returned to power with 42 of the 63 seats in Jamaica's parliament. At first, 41 seats were counted in favour of the PNP. A recount with official results cost the former agriculture minister, Christopher Tufton, his seat, putting the PNP at 42 and the JLP at 21. On January 5, 2012, Portia Simpson-Miller was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time in her political career. On the following day, she assigned 20 cabinet ministers to various ministries, and eight state ministers.
