PNP dead in the water - Creary
Published:Wednesday | October 4, 2017 | 12:00 AMChristopher Serju
St Mary:
Mayor of Port Maria, the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Richard Creary, has charged that saddled with a weak representative whose political naivety will prove to be his undoing, the People's National Party (PNP) has no chance of retaining the South East St Mary constituency.
"Based on what I am seeing on the ground, persons are motivated. They've been expecting a by-election for a different reason as there was a court case. So the Jamaica Labour Party supporters have been motivated from the last general election up to this point. Every day, people were calling, 'When is the by-election?'," said Creary.
The JLP candidate, Dr Norman Dunn, was declared the winner following the preliminary count in the 2016 general election, a decision that was reversed during the recount, with the PNP's Dr Winston Green prevailing by five votes. This prompted the losing candidate to file a petition in the Supreme Court, a matter that was being pursued up to the time of Green's death on August 14.
Now that the by-election is set for October 30, Creary is confident that a swing in his party's favour has started, and in combination with the apathy among PNP supporters, this will create the groundswell to guarantee a Dunn victory at the polls over the PNP's Shane Alexis.
NOT FEELING IT
"Once the ballots go into the box accordingly on the 30th, we should have a comfortable victory over the People's National Party. One of their former ministers was in Richmond walking around the other day and made a comment. A former beauty queen, I am told, made a comment that she is not feeling it on the ground, and I can understand why," declared Creary.
"Apart from the fact that he was, I believe, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica and maybe had got some press at that time, but that doesn't translate into votes in a constituency like South East St Mary. He's not known. He's a weak candidate."
He added: "Even in his (Alexis) interactions with people, they will tell you that he's not the sort of person who is down-to-earth, that can relate to country people. So he's having that challenge. The PNP have realised that they, maybe, made a bad choice because all of those candidates that persons would see as formidable choices did not want to come to St Mary to take the beating."