Tufton warns Labourites against complacency

WESTERN BUREAU:

Dr Christopher Tufton, former deputy leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), has warned party members against allowing the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) to win the upcoming local government election by default.

According to Tufton, having the PNP rule the country’s municipal corporations while the JLP controls the central government would be a backward step.

“It is a bad thing if Jamaica has a PNP parish council or municipal authority, and a Jamaica Labour Party [central] government. I want you to carry the message, because if we make the mistake and let the PNP feel that they control the St Elizabeth parish council, they are going to sabotage the government of Andrew Holness. And the progress that you expect, you are not going to get,” Tufton said.

He was speaking on Sunday night in Floyd Green’s South Western St Elizabeth constituency to supporters and workers of Whitney Smith-Currie, councillor of the Jamaica Labour Party’s Brampton Division in the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation.

“We need the synergy of the local municipal authority to support the work of the government of the Jamaica Labour Party, and you need to tell your neighbours and your friends that we have to return this young lady (Whitney Smith-Currie). And we have to return the Labour Party to control the municipality so that Andrew Holness and the Cabinet of the Jamaica Labour Party can continue to work,” Tufton implored the party workers.

LOSING CONTROL

He said while Jamaicans are not overly excited about the PNP, or about its leader Mark Golding, Labourites should not take that for granted and refuse to vote, claiming that the party has won already.

“We must be careful as Labourites that we don’t allow them to win by default – meaning, we take things for granted; we don’t go out and sell the party to our neighbours and our friends; we don’t come out when election is called, whether because we win already or we upset with somebody and make them squeeze through the rope. Not because seh them good, but because we decide seh we vex or we complacent,” warned Tufton.

In seeking to press home the dangers of losing control of the government, Tufton pointed to his own demise in South Western St Elizabeth when, according to him, Labourites employed a posture of not voting, claiming that he had already won in the 2011 general election. He lost to the PNP’s Hugh Buchanan by 13 votes.

“I lost South West St Elizabeth because of the complacency of Labourites who never went out on election day. Don’t make it happen to this lady right here, because we have enough Labourites to retain the Brampton Division and for Floyd Green to retain South West St Elizabeth when that time comes in a year, or a year and a half time,” the former deputy leader reasoned.

Smith-Currie is the current councillor for St Elizabeth South Western’s Brampton Division. In the 2016 local government elections, she earned 1,749, or 55.1 per cent, of all votes cast, beating the PNP’s Sandra White, who received 1,401 or 44 per cent, of the votes.