JLP shocked by 11-3 PNP blowout in Westmoreland

WESTERN BUREAU:

While the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won all three constituencies in Westmoreland in the 2020 general election, the People’s National Party (PNP) turned the tables in Monday’s local government elections, grabbing 11 of 14 electoral divisions in the parish.

Kevin Murray, who polled 992 votes for the JLP in losing against the PNP’s Joan Bahadur (1,198) in the Friendship division, said the result was an ultimate vote against the ruling party in Westmoreland.

He told The Gleaner that JLP supporters told him that Monday’s vote was not directed at him, but rather at the party and at Morland Wilson, the party’s first-term Westmoreland Western member of parliament (MP).

“I am going to use the [coming days] to reflect on it, but what I can say is that I have gotten several phone calls encouraging me not to give up and to stay on because, according to them, I was not the loser,” Murray said.

“The people in the division did not vote against me, they voted against the party, and they said they voted against the MP. That was a signal to the party and a signal to the member of parliament,” he told The Gleaner.

Bahadur had only entered the political arena two weeks before the elections were called, following the sudden death of hotelier Maxine Salabie, who at the time had recently replaced Tyrone Guthrie, who the party pulled when he was arrested and charged with the rape and abduction of a 16-year-old girl.

“I am surprised I didn’t win the seat because I thought I had done enough to come over the line,” Murray said, adding that he enjoyed a great relationship with the people of the division.

“The opponents did their work. They came in and mobilised their people, and it was good enough for them to win, and they didn’t win small either. That’s the part that was also shocking,” Murray noted.

SHOCKED BY LOSS

Ian Myles, who managed the local government process for the JLP in the parish, said losing the Friendship division was a shock to him and the wider party.

“In terms of losses, I was pretty much surprised by Friendship. That is the one for me and Grange Hill, if I am going to list them in terms of priority. Savanna-la-Mar would be third and Frome fourth,” Myles said when asked about which results were unexpected.

Murray, he explained, has done a lot of work there and that he lived in that area, while Bahadur had just entered the political arena.

“Nobody would bet against Kevin Murray, but elections these days are very funny. It’s not something that you can now put your finger on, and say, ‘yes, he can’t lose or he must win’; that’s not how it operates these days,” said Myles, the former deputy mayor of Savanna-la-Mar who switched political allegiance from the PNP to the JLP last year.

In Grange Hill, the JLP’s Basil Thompson pointed to allegations of vote buying and disgruntled Labourites who cost him the election.

“A lot of disgruntled Labourites and disgruntled people that were supporting me, when I went to talk to them [to come out to vote], they weren’t feeling too good about voting and did not vote,” Thompson told The Gleaner.

“There are a lot of people who think the Government should be doing much more for them personally, such as getting a farm work programme card, among other concerns,” the twice-defeated JLP candidate explained, adding that some believed they should have been given care packages.

Forecasting his political aspirations, Thompson is now in a reflective mood as he ponders his next move.

“It’s solely going to be depending on what the workers of the Jamaica Labour Party in my division decide. If they say I should, I will stay and run again, and if they say I should not, then I will not,” he added.

Rudolph Uter, the JLP incumbent in the Frome division, lost to the PNP’s Lidden Lewis, who is also the shadow spokesman on youth development.

And Lee Simpson, the JLP’s candidate in the Savanna-la-Mar division lost to businesswoman Julian Chang of the PNP.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com