#JAVOTES2024 | Chester Castle candidates confident of victory

Former mayor of Lucea, who served in that position between 2014 and 2016, and then councillor for the Chester Castle division, Wynter McIntosh, who was beaten by some 200 votes in the 2016 local government elections and is now a candidate for the People's National Party (PNP), is predicting that he will win this 2024 election by 300 to 500 votes.

His opponent, on the other hand, a newcomer to politics, Kaydeen Miles-Campbell representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), says she will maintain the status quo and beat McIntosh by the same margin in the last election, thus retaining the seat for the JLP.

With 6,830 electors on the voters list for the Chester Castle division in Hanover Eastern and 27 polling stations in place, an electoral officer in the division told The Gleaner that “voting has been moderate since morning and everything is flowing smoothly”.

“The ground work has been done, the (PNP) team has been overwhelmed, and they are really putting out the work, leaving no stones unturned in the process, or taking anything for granted,” McIntosh told The Gleaner.

“Based on my projections, I should be winning by over 200, more in the region of 500 (votes).”

Miles-Campbell, on the other hand, says as long as at least 30 per cent of the voters in the division turn out, she will retain the seat for the JLP.

“Traditionally, most of the votes in this area will be done in the afternoon, and as such I am hoping for a similar victory as was done in the last local government elections, so I am looking forward to the afternoon session when things will pick up,” she stated, adding that even if two per cent of the voters turn out she will be victorious.

The Chester Castle, Mount Peto and Haughton Grove areas of that division reportedly carry the most votes and polling stations.

Meanwhile, over in the Sandy Bay division, Andria Dehaney-Grant is predicting that with what she is describing as a “fairly good turnout” since in the morning, she is hoping to win that division by some 900 votes.

“We targeted a 40 per cent turnout, but based on what has been happening since morning, we may get about 50 per cent, and we are hoping to get at least 60 per cent of that,” she stated.

Dehaney-Grant won the seat by about 600 votes in the 2016 election and it is her aim to surpass that amount this time around.

The JLP contender, incumbent Oraldo Anderson, could not be reached for comment.

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