Women looking to make a difference at WMC
Published:Wednesday | February 28, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE PEOPLE of Westmoreland have selected three of the seven women who ran for political office in Monday’s 17th local government elections.
According to the preliminary results, Julian Chang of the People’s National Party (PNP) has been elected councillor for the Savanna-la-Mar division and Dawnette Foster of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) as councillor for the Cornwall Mountain division, both in the constituency of Westmoreland Central.
In Westmoreland Western, Joan Bahadur of the PNP has been elected councillor for the Friendship division.
Chang polled 1,463 votes to defeat the JLP’s Lee Simpson, who got 1,117 votes. Independent candidate Don Foote received seven votes.
Bahadur created an upset in the Friendship division to send the JLP’s Kevin Murray packing, when she polled 1,229 votes to Murray’s 948.
In the last administration of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC), the PNP won nine of the 14 seats to the JLP’s five, with only one woman, Dawnette Foster, among that crop of councillors.
On Monday, the PNP won 11 of the seats to the JLP’s three.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Chang, in an interview with The Gleaner, promised to be an advocate for all her constituents, whether they vote for her or for someone else, and that the parish capital will be transformed under her leadership.
“I want to thank my supporters, the Comrades, Savanna-la-Mar will be a better, and I also want to make it clear to the people of Sav, the entire Sav-la-Mar,”
The JLP’S Foster, who served in the last administration of the WMC, welcomed her two political opponents while sharing that Westmoreland is in a better place with three women now among the local policymakers.
“I am relieved now that I have two other ladies to help me care for the people of Westmoreland through our various municipal divisions,” the Cornwall Mountain division councillor-elect said, referencing Bahadur and Chang.
“It is a better looking corporation because women are passionate and are able to better understand the needs of the people and provide adequate representation,” she said.
That aside, the councillor-elect has promised to do better by her constituents over the next four years.
“This time around I am going to do better. In the first, there were a lot of things that I never knew and understood until late,” Foster revealed.
“This term, I know that I will be doing much better and I have a powerful team around me and together we will be working with the people,” she assured.
Efforts to reach Danree Delancy, the PNP councillor-elect for the Bethel Town division and the man tipped to become the chairman of the WMC and mayor of Savanna-la-Mar, proved futile, as calls to his mobile phone rang without an answer.
Ian Myles, the JLP’s councillor-elect for the Little London division, told The Gleaner that he welcomed the addition of more women to the corporation.
“It’s good to see women taking up leadership at this level. At the parliamentary level, there are so many, so it’s encouraging,” said Myles, who is tipped to continue his role as minority leader for the JLP.
“I am happy for the direction and the discussion in which the local government is going [because] our women, they have a role to play,” he argued, while sharing that gender equality is really good.