Distance, weather not obstacles for longtime Gager supporter
Published:Tuesday | February 27, 2024 | 12:11 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
MONDAY’S INCLEMENT weather and a lengthy driving distance from Kingston were not enough to stop 32-year-old Lenroy Neil from travelling all the way to his birthplace in Troy, Trelawny, to show his support for Collen Gager, the Jamaica Labour Party’s councillor candidate for Trelawny Southern’s Warsop division.
Neil, who was among several prospective voters taking shelter from pouring rain at the Troy Primary School where he came to cast his vote, told The Gleaner that he made the effort to drive all the way from Kingston before arriving in the midmorning hours at the polling centre, which was set up at the school for Monday’s local government elections.
“I was here from 10:30, them times, running up and down, and now it is 3 p.m., and I am not leaving till I know my boss is okay, because he is the man. All the years that I have been born and known myself, this man is the man, Collen Gager, who did all these things for the young people to be comfortable,” the positively exuberant Neil declared of his chosen candidate.
“When it comes to football, volleyball, or netball, talk about him, because he is always here for the young youths no matter what,” Neil added. “I was born here with my mayor here before he became who he is now, so I am still with him, because he has been doing good all these years for the community.”
Neil was among several prospective voters who had a lengthy wait to exercise their franchise at the Troy Primary School’s designated polling centre, similar to what was happening at other voting sites in Wait-A-Bit, Freeman’s Hall, Low River, and other communities across Trelawny Southern’s four divisions – Warsop, Ulster Spring, Albert Town, and Lorrimers.
Asked if it would not have been easier to remain in Kingston and vote for a candidate there, Neil insisted that he had to return to his birth community to show solidarity with Gager, who has been a councillor in the Trelawny Municipal Corporation since 2003.
“You want to know the reason why I am here? I was born here in Trelawny, then I grew up in Spanish Town [in St Catherine], and I moved to Vineyard Town and Dunkirk [in Kingston]. But this is my mayor from Trelawny, who has been so much from I was youthful until today, so I have to be here today to give him back the support,” Neil said stoutly.
In the meantime, Gager – who went up against the People’s National Party’s [PNP] Kedon Glave for the Warsop division – voiced confidence that his close association with the people in the division would secure him victory.
“If you just look at each PD [polling division] cluster and see what the turnout is like, you will see the Labourites covering in every way. There are also many who don’t wear green, and even some you see in the orange, voting for me,” Gager said, referencing the PNP’s signature colour.
“I have lived here, I have done my work, I have been courteous and ‘mannersable’ to people. I don’t seek a friend when I need the friend, I find the friend from before,” Gager added. “I can walk in this community, and I know there are people who won’t go beyond their political boundary, but it is going to be good.”