CELEBRATING her 64th birthday yesterday, Portia Simpson Miller sounded confident she would lead her Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) back to power sooner rather than later.

“We are building and setting the party machinery in place so that when the Jamaican people call on us again to take charge then we will be ready from day one to begin to implement on their behalf and in their interest,” said the PNP president.

Simpson Miller, the Member of Parliament for South West St Andrew, was also brimming with confidence about her tenure as party leader, ruling out any likely challenges in the foreseeable future.

“I am not thinking of any more challenges… So I will not focus on another challenge,” Simpson Miller told the Sunday Observer in an interview Friday, shortly after giving her first public address since returning from an extensive trip overseas, including China.

The function marked the rededication of the newly refurbished basketball courts at Kingston College in downtown, Kingston.

Asked about her level of party support, after her two victories from the 2006 and 2008 challenges, Simpson Miller believed that any further challenge to her leadership would be foolhardy.

“I have demonstrated on more than one occasion through the delegates and people of Jamaica that I have a great deal of support,” said Jamaica’s first woman prime minister. “I know that I am going to get the opportunity to lead this country again, the party is more united now than for sometime and everybody is trying to pull their weight. We have been having discussions and we continue to ensure that the work on the ground is being done,” she said.

Fending off criticisms that she could be fodder for the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the next general election constitutionally due in 2012, she insisted that she would be in the political ring for a long time.

Simpson Miller declined to give a timetable for her departure from the political scene, opting instead to reinforce the point that she would be making regular trips to Jamaica House again as a qualified occupant.

“I am not going to tell you that,” she said in response to how much longer she intends to spend in elective politics.

“But I know that I am going to put the party back in power then after that anything I want to do I will do it. I am so turned on to working for the people now, based on the fact that so many things have been going wrong. I feel compelled to redouble my efforts and work harder for the people now.”

Simpson Miller said that among the challenges being faced by her party was getting money to implement projects and programmes. Despite this, she said, the party was taking the ‘Progressive Agenda’ a set of policy objectives that it wanted to achieve, on the road.

“By and large we are doing a lot of work locally and internationally. The regional chairmen and regional organisations are working hard to get everything in place. The (annual) conference that we had in September was testimony to it. We had no money, yet the people came out. We never felt that we would have had that kind of turnout for a conference where we did not spend any money to transport people, but people in their communities were putting money together in unity, getting transportation. It is that kind of spirit that encourages me,” she said.