NOT YET OVER
JLP wins 7 parishes, PNP bags 5 plus Portmore mayorship; KSAMC battle heads to court
Published:Saturday | March 2, 2024 | 10:27 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) completed its official count of ballots in the 2024 local government elections on Friday with both of the island’s major political parties still claiming victory and several divisions seem headed to court for final settlement.
At the end of counting, the EOJ said that the ruling Jamaica labour Party (JLP) had the majority of seats in seven parishes – St Thomas, Portland, St Ann, Trelawny, St James, St Elizabeth, and Clarendon.
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) won five parishes – St Mary, Hanover, Westmoreland, Manchester, and St Catherine.
A tie was declared in Kingston and St Andrew, where the parties won 20 divisions each.
The PNP also won the mayoral election in Portmore.
In a release on Friday, PNP General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell declared that the party had “won” the long-awaited local polls.
“The time has come for brief celebration and for us to quickly return our focus to serving the people of Jamaica,” he stated, while expressing gratitude to the Jamaican people for their support and trust in the PNP.
Campbell said that winning the mayorship of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), in particular, was a testament to the party’s resurgence as the preferred and trusted leaders of the capital city.
FRONT-RUNNERS
“The PNP emerged as the frontrunner by winning more divisions across Jamaica, securing 115 out of 228 divisions, up from 98 in 2016, demonstrating the broad and diverse support for the party across the nation. In contrast, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) experienced a reduction in its majority, losing the municipalities of KSAMC and St Mary, along with 17 divisions they controlled going into the elections,” the PNP said.
But the JLP expressed grave concern with the PNP’s claim that it has won the elections.
The party insisted that it won the elections, pointing to the EOJ’s announcement that it had won in seven parishes, while the PNP won in five, and that the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation ended in a tie.
With the final counting now out of the way, the battles now head to the courts for some divisions to be recounted.
In the high-stakes Kingston and St Andrew, the ruling party is preparing to file a magisterial recount for the Kintyre division in St Andrew East Rural.
The division went to the PNP’s Vivienne Brown-Bond, who got 1,319 votes, over the JLP’s Kelvin Clarke, who received 1,287 votes. This is a difference of 32 votes.
If the JLP prevails, this would break the current 20-20 tie in the KSAMC.
Should a tie remain, the PNP would get the mayorship as it secured the popular vote.
Phillip Paulwell, the chairman of the PNP’s Region Three, confirmed on Friday that the opposition party is in the process of compiling documents for a magisterial recount in the Llandewey division in St Thomas and the Southboro division in St Thomas.
The initial count of votes on Monday had seen the PNP’s Everton Shakes declared the winner in Southboro by a razor-thin margin of four votes. However, after the final count was completed by the EOJ, it was revealed that Shakes lost to the JLP’s Damara Lawson by three votes.
Lawson secured 1,008 votes in the final count to Shakes’ 1,005.
A win for the PNP in Southboro would not change the balance of power in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation as the PNP already holds the reins with 22 divisions, while the JLP currently has 19.
In the Llandewey division, where a tie was declared after Monday’s preliminary tally, the JLP’s Andrea Patience polled 1,316 to the PNP’s Edwin Marr’s 1,309 – a margin of seven votes.
The victory gives the JLP six of the 10 divisions in St Thomas and the opportunity to select a mayor for Morant Bay from among its councillors.
Should the PNP go ahead with the magisterial recount and succeed, it is unlikely that it would wrest control of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation as the final counting of ballots saw the JLP emerging with the popular vote – 12,732 votes to the PNP’s 12,422.
Colin Hitchman, chairman of the PNP’s Region Six, said the party is also contemplating a magisterial recount for the Cornwall Mountain division in Westmoreland, where the JLP’s Dawnette Foster won the division, polling 1,497 to the 1,470 votes received by the PNP’s Abigail Malcolm.
The PNP already holds the reins in the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.
“We are consulting with our legal advisers with a view to consider the possibility or the need for a magisterial recount,” Hitchman told The Gleaner.
He said that the party’s decision will be known by noon on Monday.
“There have been some variations as to the results changing sides overnight, therefore we need clarification, especially the decisions taken on some of these votes,” Hitchman said.