Montague returns

In a glorious bounce-back to reclaim the challenging St Mary Western seat for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Robert Montague has succeeded in killing two proverbial birds with one stone.

Montague did not only exact revenge on the People's National Party's (PNP's) Jolyan Silvera, who handed him his first defeat after just one term in the House of Representatives in 2011. He also silenced critics who had suggested that he not put himself up as a candidate for the position of chairman of the JLP and focus on regaining the seat.

Not only did Montague triumph in the internal elections for JLP chairman in 2012, he has rebounded in St Mary Western to wrest the seat from Silvera.

Montague secured 11,663 to Silvera's 8,120.

He was 'elevated' to the Upper Chamber (the Senate) in the aftermath of his defeat in the 2011 polls but is now back in the Lower Chamber, where he is convinced he belongs.

The young politician was one of two losing JLP candidates in the 2011 general election to be appointed to the opposition benches of the Senate - the other being Dr Christopher Tufton.

He actually entered politics in 1990 as a councillor for Carron Hall, St Mary, but it was in the 2003 local government election that Montague demonstrated his knack for triumphing against the odds.

It is said that without any significant assistance from party central

and no financial resources, Montague and his team gave the PNP, and Jamaica, political lessons and won the St Mary Parish Council by eight seats to the once-invincible PNP's five.

That year, Montague became mayor. The JLP team in St Mary continued to work and expand its influence through high visibility in the entire parish and excellent leadership at the local level.

In the general election of September 2007, the team fully established itself as Montague swept to victory in St Mary Western, securing 9,022 votes to PNP standard-bearer Delano Franklyn's 8,255.

But the tables were turned four years later when the PNP's Silvera returned to snatch the seat in a close contest.

Montague bagged 9,466 votes, or just over 49 per cent, to Silvera's 9,695. Now, the man affectionately known as 'Bobby' is back in the area where he was born and nurtured in a political family. His father, Asquith Nathaniel, was a charter member of the JLP.