Senior-Smith promises residents water, Wi-Fi, work

Through hilly terrain and oftentimes over very bumpy roads, Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips on Saturday led a team of party faithful through the battleground constituency of St Catherine North Eastern, where the People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Oswest Senior-Smith is hoping to claim victory come September 3.

The journey started in Cassava River and ended in Redwood, where the mostly maskless Comrades gyrated, bumped their fists in the air and shouted approval for Senior-Smith, whose campaign focus on water, work, Wi-Fi and roads is seemingly gaining traction.

“All those are terribly, sadly lacking in North East St Catherine, right across the three divisions. In the Mount Industry division, in Troja division and in the Guy’s Hill division,” he said. The aspiring member of parliament was named as the PNP’s standard-bearer in the constituency in 2018.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has won the seat in 11 of the 15 parliamentary elections held since 1944. The JLP’s Leslie Campbell was able to wrestle the constituency from the PNP’s Phyllis Mitchell with a 121-vote majority during the 2016 general election, but he was recently replaced by Kerensia Morrison, who is eager to secure a win, having lost the bid to take away St Catherine North Central from the PNP’s Natalie Neita-Headley, who secured 1,332 more votes in the 2016 election.

Senior-Smith, a well-known attorney, is no stranger to defeat either, having failed in his bid to win North East St Ann in the 2007 election, which was won by the late Shahine Robinson by 2,022 votes.

But Senior-Smith is confident he will win this time around. “I walk in some areas and some evenings they are asking me for a jug of water to assist them in cooking their dinner. I have also instituted water trucking right across some hugely impoverished area in this constituency,” said Senior-Smith during a brief stop in Riversdale, where party loyalists pointed to the lack of water as one of their most pressing issue.

Water, Wi-Fi

Water, along with Wi-Fi and agriculture, is high on the agenda for Phillips, who made his intentions clear as the Comrades disregarded social-distancing rules and huddled together to hear his master plan for the constituency.

“When I passed trough North East St Catherine today (August 15), come all the way down Cassava River up to Mount Industry, Guy’s Hill, when I looked at the roads, my heart pain me,” he said, lamenting that, “In the middle of Guy’s Hill, the biggest town in this constituency, you have some crater that even mongoose can’t cross.”

His promise to bring Wi-Fi to the constituency was widely endorsed, but this was not the case for his call for them to wear a mask to safeguard their health, since the number of COVID-19 cases in the island has been increasing.

“Wi can’t afford it,” one woman blurted out, much to the amusement of others who snickered.

For a brief moment, the revelling supporters were forced to relocate their vehicles and their bodies as a fire truck attempted to make its way through the sea of orange, but this was viewed as a diversion tactic by some.

“Is true wi a bun out Shower (Jamaica Labour Party), unnu a carry water now,” one supporter was overheard telling another, who nodded in agreement as the siren grew louder.

Despite the abundance of green flags adorning light posts throughout the constituency, especially in the Guy’s Hill division which the JLP won by 500 votes in 2016, Senior-Smith says his opponent does not stand a chance at winning.

“She can’t do anything. She can’t come, but hope to make an additional bag of promises, which is what the JLP does in North East St Catherine,” he said.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com