Establishing term limits for prime ministers is part of the commitment of the National Democratic Congress to set a "different standard in governance'' in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, says party leader Tillman Thomas.
 
He says the NDC would like to see a change in the Grenada constitution, allowing a prime minister to serve only two terms.
 
"As a political party, we have to give serious consideration to looking at term limits for prime ministers,'' Thomas told an NDC rally Sunday at the Morne Rouge Playing Field, St. George's.
 
The rally marked the NDC's official launch of its campaign to the 2008 general election, which will be held on July 8.
 
One section of the playing field was adorned with billboard-sized posters of all 15 candidates.  Patrick Simmonds, the NDC's candidate for St. Andrew South-East, received a symbolic handing over of the baton from Kenrick Fullerton, former MP for the constituency.
 
Fullerton won St. Andrew South-East for the NDC in 2003 but is not seeking re-election at next month's poll.
 
 Thousands of NDC supporters, including former Prime Minister George Brizan, packed the Morne Rouge Playing Field, listening to speeches.  They also waved yellow party flags and candidates' photos, and sang election songs such as Puppa Lindi's "Voting Yellow,'' "We Want A Change'' by Phat Trax, General Pippi's "Enough is Enough'' and Soca Banton's "Yellow in the Air.''
 
Thomas, in the opening address, said that "thirteen years of NNP rule under Keith Mitchell have brought this proud nation to its knees.''
 
The candidate for St. Patrick East, Thomas said: "The NDC I have the great privilege to lead will set a different standard in governance.''
 
With the election of an NDC majority government, said Thomas, the party would hold national discussions with a view to changing the constitution to limit the term of office for prime ministers.
 
"We are going to engage the nation in dialogue to come up with a consensus as to whether the people want the constitution  to be amended  so that two terms would be the limit for a prime minister,'' Thomas said.
 
"We have to give serious consideration to looking at term limits for prime ministers.  We believe that a prime minister should not be a prime minister for more than two terms.''
 
Thomas and other NDC speakers also outlined the party's plans for bettering the lives of Grenadians after the National Democratic Congress forms the government.
 
"Grenada with the NDC,'' Thomas assured, "will give every constituency good quality jobs, better education and training, improved social services and healthcare, a valuable share of the tourism industry, modernized agricultural production and much, much more.''
 
General Secretary Peter David, the party's candidate for the Town of St. George, promised that by the end of its first term in office, a government of the National Democratic Congress will reduce unemployment from 20 percent to under 10 percent.
 
Nazim Burke, who is seeking re-election in St. George North-East, said Prime Minister Keith Mitchell and the New National Party are trying to frighten people into voting against the National Democratic Congress by propagating a series of lies and rumours against the NDC.
 
Burke, the NDC's Public Relations Officer, debunked an NNP claim on the taxation plans of the National Democratic Congress.
 
He said it's a "completely false'' claim by the NNP that an NDC government will reintroduce personal income tax, or impose a structural adjustment program.
 
Burke said "poor relief'' payment, now at $150, will be increased by an NDC administration to $400 to help the elderly and other needed people in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
 
He said a debt management unit will be set up in the Ministry of Finance to focus primarily on examining ways of reducing the national debt, estimated at $1.7 billion.
 
Burke said that any money borrowed by a government of the NDC "will go into productive activities'' as part of a "clear economic plan for the development of this nation.''