Davis not worried over loss of JLP’s municipal division in Hanover

WESTERN BUREAU:

MEMBER OF Parliament for Hanover Western, Tamika Davis, says she is not daunted by the loss of the one Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC) divisional seat the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had in her constituency prior to the recent local government elections.

Davis says she has resolved to go back to the drawing board for planning and working harder going forward.

In an interview with The Gleaner following the swearing in of the seven People’s National Party (PNP) councillors who were successful in the election, Davis argued that her presence at the event was an indication that she was not daunted by the present situation in which the PNP controls all seats in the HMC.

Prior to the February 26 elections, the PNP controlled four divisional seats in the seven-seat HMC – Sandy Bay, Cauldwell, Riverside, and Green Island –while the JLP controlled Hopewell, Chester Castle, and Lucea.

The Hopewell and Chester Castle divisions are in Hanover Eastern while the Lucea division is in Hanover Western. The PNP ended up winning all seven seats in the election.

“I hope that my presence here (at the swearing-in ceremony) is an indication that I do not feel threatened. I am not daunted at all. If it does not say that, let me state categorically that the present situation has given me a cause and resolve to work harder,” she emphasised.

She argued that all the municipal corporation divisions had their peculiarities, and she would be embarking on a detailed assessment of the results in the different divisions in her constituency.

While accepting the fact that the JLP has lost the one division that it previously held in Hanover Western in the recent election – the Lucea division – Davis noted that she had put in an enormous amount of work into the constituency since taking office as the member of parliament butthat it would seem that there was more work to be done.

“Despite the amount of work I have put in, more needs to be done, and I am prepared and willing to put in the work needed,” she argued.

ENCOURAGED

Davis, who was born and raised in Hanover Eastern, told The Gleaner that she was heartened by comments and the encouragement that she had been receiving from the constituents since the election, stating, “Very often, people say ‘Ms. Davis, this (the election) is not about you’.”

“It means going forward, I will be going harder and stronger, and I will fight to the end,” she pledged.

She pointed out that she was a bit surprised at the result in the Riverside division, in which the community of Chambers Pen is located, arguing that “it was a surprise for many reasons”.

The Chambers Pen community had benefited from total upgrading and upliftment through a Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development multimillion-dollar, multifaceted improvement programme recently.

She went on to commend the JLP councillor candidate in the Cauldwell division, stating that despite her loss, her results were encouraging given the fact that she was a last-minute replacement for a long-standing candidate who had recently migrated.

bryan.miller@gleanerjm.com