PNP going with experienced team to retake Westmoreland
Published:Wednesday | January 17, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
People’s National Party (PNP) President Mark Golding named three former members of parliament to compete in the next general election in Westmoreland. Their goal is to retake the parish that the party has long considered theirs.
In the parish capital Savanna-la-Mar on Sunday evening, Golding formally announced Dwayne Vaz as the parliamentary candidate for Central Westmoreland, Ian Hayles, as the parliamentary candidate for Westmoreland Western, and Dr Dayton Campbell, as the parliamentary candidate for Westmoreland Eastern.
For the party to win at the polls, he also called on party supporters and members to put aside differences and focus on what he calls ‘the bigger picture’.
“We are going to put those aside; our work is too important, and our future is too important. We can’t afford to let those things distract us,” Golding told a sea of jubilant orange-clad supporters gathered at The Manning’s School.
“The bigger picture is for Westmoreland to be retained in the column of the People’s National Party at the local government level, and for the three constituencies to come back to the fold [of the PNP] in the general elections,” the PNP president said.
“And I know I can rely on you. I have confidence in you to deliver that for yourselves, the people of Westmoreland, and the people of Jamaica,” Golding continued, before naming Vaz as the candidate for Central Westmoreland.
“I bring to you former and MP to be, Comrade Dwayne Vaz,” he said of the young businessman who was first elected in a by-election where he ran against the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Faye Reid-Jacobs and Ras Astor Black of the Jamaica Alliance Movement, to fill the seat that became vacant in August 2014 when former MP Roger Clarke died.
He polled 8,720 votes to Jacobs’ 6,268 from a voters’ list with more than 39,000 registered electors.
Vaz went on to secure the seat, defeating George Wright of the JLP and the independent candidate, Toraino Brown, in the February 25, 2016 general election, securing 9,978 votes to Wright’s 8,847. However, in the September 3, 2020 general election, the political tide changed, and Wright got the better of Vaz when he polled 8,447 to Vaz’s 7,288 votes.
Golding, who will be facing his first election as leader of the 85-year-old party, presented his friend and vice-president Ian Hayles as the candidate for Western Westmoreland, from the political platform in Central Westmoreland.
“I bring to you my brethren, vice-president of the People’s National Party, Comrade Ian Hayles, as the constituency candidate for the great constituency of Western Westmoreland,” an upbeat Golding told his supporters.
Hayles, a former state minister in the Ministry of Water, lost the Hanover Western seat to political newbie and attorney-at-law Tamika Davis in the 2022 general election, by a margin of 1,029 votes. Davis polled 6,029 to Hayles’s 4,999.
“I bring to you a true warrior for the people, a true warrior for the People’s National Party, but a man whose heart is full of love, Comrade Dr Dayton Campbell, as your candidate for Eastern Westmoreland,” Golding said.
Campbell, a former two-term St Ann North Western member of parliament (MP), lost his bid for a third term to newcomer Krystal Lee in the September general election, losing by 2,106 votes. Lee polled 7,846 votes to Campbell’s 5,740 votes.
The governing JLP caused a sea of change in Westmoreland almost four years ago in September 2020, turning the entire parish – a long-time bloc of PNP support – green in a landslide victory that gave them 49 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives.
The sitting members of parliament in the parish are George Wright, Central Westmoreland; Morland Wilson, who defeated the PNP’s heavyweight Dr. Wykeham McNeill in Western Westmoreland; and Daniel Lawrence, who defeated Luther Buchanan in Eastern Westmoreland in the 2020 elections.