‘This election is a serious election’

Ruing the loss of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) by a single vote in the 2016 local government elections, the People’s National Party (PNP) is treating the upcoming ballot as “the big one” with the Corporate Area at the centre of its dartboard.

“This election is the most important and consequential local government election since 1986,” Comrades gathered at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex in south St Andrew heard from Julian Robinson, chief organiser for the PNP in Kingston and St Andrew.

A general election three years prior, that went uncontested by the PNP, saw the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in control of all 60 constituencies.

SILVER LINING AHEAD

But in a change of fortune for the ruling party, Robinson, the member of parliament for St Andrew South Eastern, recalled that the PNP swept the 13 parish councils in 1986 and three years later in 1989 returned to government.

He suggested that the party’s crushing 14-49 defeat in the 2020 general election, a somewhat similar ordeal, will end with a similar silver lining three weeks from now.

“This election is a serious election,” he stressed, reminding the jam-packed complex how the JLP seized the KSAMC after Rosalie Hamilton defeated the PNP’s Shawn McGregor, polling 1,884 votes to his 1,883 to secure the Rae Town division in Kingston Central.

The outcome tipped the scale for the JLP, giving the governing party 21 of the 40 divisions in the Corporate Area.

Two councillors – Kari Douglas and Venesha Phillips – who ran and won on PNP tickets subsequently crossed the floor to join the JLP, resulting in a current 17 to 23 division count.

“We affi hold the 17. We going win back the two that those people went with because they are PNP divisions. They were won by the PNP and the PNP will take them back. So that take us to 19 and then we have to win a minimum of two more, minimum,” said Robinson, who insisted that the KSAMC is the “most important” council in the country.

“So the reason this election is important; if you tired of the corruption, the thieving, the looting and the scamming, we affi send a message in this local government election,” said Robinson, while asserting that victory for the PNP means programmes and policies are put in place to “ease the pressure off everybody”.

He urged party faithful to “send a signal” stressing that party supporters must communicate to the wider Jamaica why this election is of significance.

“This is the beginning of the return of the People’s National Party,” said Robinson.

In a similar tone, PNP Chairman Dr Angela Brown Burke told Comrades in the PNP garrison that it was time to elevate their MP, Mark Golding, to the Office of the Prime Minister and that the first step towards this is via a victory in the February 26 local government elections.

She said many Jamaicans are of the view that the polls are not as significant.

“When you leave here today, I want you to go tell them say it’s a big, big election and we need all of them to come out ... because we have to send a message. We have a team that is fit and ready,” she said.

Golding, the PNP president, said the poll will be a referendum on the Holness administration, noting that his party will claim victory and, from there, “it will only be a matter of time” before the general election is called and the “PNP is returned to power” under his leadership.

Meanwhile, the party said 50 per cent of its candidates contesting divisions within the KSAMC are women.

“That is progress, because we know women are good leaders,” said Golding.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com