Sizzling Davis-Small clash expected in St James Southern
Published:Tuesday | August 18, 2020 | 12:26 AMMark Titus/Gleaner Writer
For the first time in three decades, residents of St James Southern are set to have a new member of parliament (MP).
When the constituents enter the voting booth on September 3, it will be the first time in more than 30 years they will not see Derrick Kellier as an option as the 73-year-old incumbent MP, who has held the seat for the People’s National Party (PNP) since 1989, retires from representational politics.
This time around, they will be choosing between individuals – each with a track record of performance in their chosen fields over the years – seeking to get their first nod to enter the House of Representatives.
Stepping into the ring for the first time will be Dr Walton Small, the PNP’s new man, a past president of the Inter-Schools Sports Association as well as a former principal of Anchovy High School in the constituency and Wolmer’s Boys’ School in Kingston.
In what is expected to be a ding-dong battle, Small will face off with Homer Davis of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), who currently sits in the mayor’s chair in Montego Bay and is the councillor for the Cambridge division in the constituency.
“Homer coming home for the win,” Paul Esson, a JLP supporter in the Maroon Town division, told The Gleaner recently. “We have the Maroon Town division locked, plus Welcome Hall and Cambridge, so no need to worry … . This is the end for the PNP.”
As JLP leader Andrew Holness toured the constituency recently, a Richmond Hill resident, who gave her name as ‘Dev’, had not quite made up her mind on where to place the all-important ‘X’.
She told The Gleaner that Davis had done more for the area as a councillor for 17 years than Kellier had done in his 31 years as an MP. However, Small had an impact on her young life as headmaster at Anchovy High.
“My community was without water for more than 17 years, and is Homer Davis fight for us to have water in our pipes,” she said. “He deserves to be the next MP,” said Dev. “But I also like Mr Small. He was my principal at Anchovy and he is a good person.”
Other constituents shared a similar view that a cloud of poor performance by Kellier was hanging over Small and could dampen his chances at the polls.
Harris not worried
However, former Montego Bay Mayor Glendon Harris believes that with a new political representative in the driver’s seat, the PNP machinery in St James Southern will be fully mobilised to defeat Davis, who was beaten by Kellier in 2011 and 2016.
“The reality is that the entire constituency is PNP inclined,” said Harris, who was councillor for the Maroon Town division for 26 years before he was ousted in 2016.
“My MP has been there for so long and some supporters don’t like the mood, so they have not been going out to vote,” he acknowledged.
He is confident that the PNP can still woo the majority of voters who turn out on September 3 from the 27,506 registered in the constituency.
“There are about 8,600 PNP voters there. Davis maxed out what he could get in the last general election, that was about 5,300-plus,” Harris argued, “but with a different person from Kellier, you are going to find much more people going out to vote, so Davis will not win.”
Small has prioritised the constituency’s primary infrastructure, especially water and roads, for immediate attention should he be elected. Job creation through training and certification and the diversification of the agricultural sector are also high on his list.
“I am very upbeat about the reception from the constituents,” he told The Gleaner recently. “This is an area that I have served for years and I will retain the seat for the PNP.”
He added: “The MP has built a solid foundation in the constituency and has supported me 100 per cent. We have been doing our house-to-house visits and the support is tremendous. I spent 10 years as principal of the Anchovy High School, and during my walks doing house-to-house visits, the response from the residents has been warm and welcoming.”
The rural constituency is comprised of several farming-dependent villages and has two small towns – Cambridge and Anchovy. The JLP currently controls three of the four local government divisions, with Davis representing Cambridge since 2003, Everes Coke representing Maroon Town, and Welcome Hall by Gregory Wint. The Catadupa division is led by the PNP’s Gladstone Bent, who was recently ejected from the Davis-led municipal corporation.
Kellier managed to stave off Davis’ previous attempts to unseat him by 1,072 votes in the 2011 national polls, before crawling over the finish line via a magisterial recount to edge out Davis by a mere 62 votes in 2016. This has given confidence to the Davis camp.
“My political work has been ongoing. I have been preparing for a general election since the last one. In fact, there was a time when we thought we would even have a by-election, so that should tell you that I am way ahead of the game in my own preparation,” Davis told The Gleaner on Sunday.
“Everything relies on the people, the trust of the people on that day, but my performance in the constituency is determined by actual performance and not what is determined by pollsters,” Davis added. “I don’t have to get a signal from my party to campaign. As long as I’m in the constituency, I am campaigning – and I’m in my constituency very, very often. I am in my division two, three, four days a week, because I know that if you ask people to put their confidence in you, then you will have to make yourself available for them.”
He added: “Our canvass is very encouraging, but election is won on election day, and so we will need to pull out the votes, to ensure that the work that we have been doing reflects in the results on the final count.”