Terrelonge looks to start winning streak
Published:Thursday | July 23, 2020 | 12:09 AMRomario Scott/Gleaner Writer
With both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) securing one win apiece in St Catherine East Central since the constituency was created ahead of the 2011 polls, Member of Parliament Alando Terrelonge is hoping to start a winning streak for the Labourites there.
In February 2016, Terrelonge beat the PNP’s Arnaldo Brown by 479 votes to enter Gordon House for the first time.
Brown had won the seat in 2011 by polling 5,734 votes to beat the JLP’s Suzette Buchanan, who had amassed 5,176 votes.
“The constituents have spoken and have endorsed my efforts to serve them ... [and] for me being victorious whenever the elections are called,” said Terrelonge, who has stepped up campaign activities recently, with the next polls on the horizon.
The JLP has been conducting door-to-door campaign activities in the constituency, with a heavy presence in West Cumberland, Newlands, Watson Grove, and in the party’s stronghold of Gregory Park.
Terrelonge, an attorney-at-law, is expected to be in a fierce competition against the PNP’s Raymond Pryce when the polls are called.
Pryce has been working to chip away at the 479-vote margin by focusing on the PNP bases in the constituency even as he plans to flip the script in Gregory Park.
Three seasoned PNP political campaigners told The Gleaner that Brown lost St Catherine East Central to Terrelonge in 2016 because of a misplaced focus on areas that would yield him little electoral support.
St Catherine East Central, which was created in 2011 in a move to bring the number of constituencies across the island to 63, is made up of communities that were originally part of St Catherine South Central, St Catherine South East, and St Catherine South.
The new constituency now includes areas such as Gregory Park, Southborough, Portmore Pines, Naggo Head, Cedar Grove, Meadowvale, and Lakes Pen.
“This seat in the last election was lost by Gregory Park. You can’t throw powder pon black bud,” Patrina, a PNP campaigner, told The Gleaner. “We say to him (Brown), Gregory Park is a [JLP] strong area. Focus on your stronger area that you have. If Arnaldo did focus, not really on Southborough alone, ... more PNP supporters woulda come out.”
She added: “He was focusing on Gregory Park. ... Focus on the area that can cover the amount at Gregory Park. Him never focus on the strong areas, so some of the PNP [supporters] dem never come out. That was just it.”
new focus, unfazed
Price said that based on anecdotes, the division should swing towards the PNP this time around.
But Terrelonge appears unfazed.
“I welcome any challenge. However, my work is to focus on Team Terrelonge. I have seen as many as four different challengers. They come and they leave. I am here to serve the people, and when the last vote is counted, it will remain,” he told The Gleaner as he referenced the PNP’s candidate-selection issues in the constituency.
Before Pryce, Dr Winston De La Haye, a former health ministry permanent secretary, was being touted as the man to ensure that the seat is counted in the wining column of the party at the next general election.
But he fled the seat in late April, claiming that his life was being threatened although he did not disclose from which quarters the alleged threats were coming.
*Rasbert Turner contributed to this story.