Future Prime Minister Andrew Holness entered parliament at this election.

Prime Minister P. J. Patterson announced on 27 November that the election would be held on 18 December.

[2] Patterson saw this as the right time to go the country as his People's National Party was ahead in the opinion polls, inflation had fallen substantially and the national football team had just qualified for the 1998 World Cup.

[3] A record 197 candidates contested the election,[4][5] with a new political party, the National Democratic Movement, standing in most of the seats.

[7] The election was seen as being mainly between the governing People's National Party and the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party, led by the former Prime Minister Edward Seaga.