Like a family fun day

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — There were traffic snarls and inconveniences for ordinary folk, but otherwise Nomination Day activities went well in St Elizabeth and Manchester, returning officers and members of the police high command said yesterday.

“Smooth” was the term used by most returning officers to describe the nomination of 16 candidates in eight constituencies across the two parishes.

And while thousands of people turned up at nomination centres to support their candidates, police reported no unsavoury incidents.

“Not a stone throw in St Elizabeth that I have heard about,” declared St Elizabeth’s police chief, Supt Maurice Robinson. “It was just people having good exchanges. It was like a family fun day across the parish,” he said.

After nominations closed in early afternoon Manchester’s police chief Superintendent Lascelles Taylor claimed the only problem was traffic congestion, particularly in Mandeville.

In fact, traffic was brought to a virtual standstill in Mandeville for close to three hours on either side of noon, as hundreds of party supporters joined their Central Manchester candidates, Peter Bunting (PNP) and Danville Walker (JLP) at the historic Mandeville Courthouse for nomination proceedings.

Bunting arrived at approximately 10:50 am, accompanied by the required 10 electors which included Mandeville Mayor Brenda Ramsay, the PNP’s Region five Chairman Wensworth Skeffery and campaign director for Manchester and former MP for Central Manchester John Junor.

Bunting paid the fee of $3,000 in $1,000 bills which bear the likeness of legendary PNP leader and former prime Minister Michael Manley.

Before departing on a constituency tour, Bunting told the media that he had “absolutely” no concerns about retaining his Central Manchester seat. The PNP had “tun up the ting in Central Manchester” and “people are excited, people are having fun and people are going to send a resolute message that Peter Bunting will still be the member of Parliament come December 29”, he said.

Amidst a drizzle, the JLP’s Danville Walker arrived with his entourage at 11:57 am. He took a little longer to clear his representatives with the security at the gate. Having arrived inside the nomination centre, he paid his fee in one hundred dollar notes — bearing the likeness of the late prime minister of a JLP government of the 1960s, Donald Sangster.

Walker dismissed suggestions that his entourage seemed smaller than Bunting’s, saying his supporters were in different areas of the town as they could not all fit into the compound of the nomination centre. He said he was “very pleased” with the turnout and that “in just a few weeks we have closed the gap and actually inched ahead of Peter Bunting”.

Walker expressed concern about what he claimed were intimidatory tactics by the PNP. “This is not the kind of leadership that Jamaica needs now,” he said. “Our main issue would be to organise to get the voters out and get the ballots into the box… if we have no intimidation of our electors in those crucial JLP areas then we will win the day…,” Walker said.

In North East Manchester, Finance Minister and the incumbent Audley Shaw was nominated to represent the JLP. He will be challenged by the PNP’s Val Wint, a businessman. “It has all gone very well, I have thousands of people here with me in a motorcade,” Shaw told the Observer by telephone after nomination.

In North West Manchester, Mikael Phillips, son of PNP heavyweight and campaign director Peter Phillips, was nominated by the PNP to replace incumbent MP Dean Peart who is retiring from active politics. Phillips will be challenged by the JLP’s councillor for the Mile Gully Division, Timothy Scarlett.

Dean Peart’s younger brother and PNP incumbent Michael Peart was nominated in South Manchester. He will be challenged by the JLP’s Colin Virgo.

In South West Elizabeth, Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister and JLP incumbent Christopher Tufton will be challenged by the PNP’s Hugh Buchanan who is the son of the late Danny Buchanan, a former Cabinet minister who held the seat for the PNP for 18 years, ending in 2007.

In SE St Elizabeth, the JLP’s incumbent Frank Witter will face the PNP’s Richard Parchment. In the parish’s North West, veteran JLP politician JC Hutchinson will seek to hold off the challenge of the PNP’s Richard Rowe, while in NE St Elizabeth, Raymond Pryce will seek to retain what has traditionally been a safe seat for the Opposition party in the face of challenge from the JLP’s Corris Samuels. Pryce, took over less than a month ago from Basil Waite who was dropped by the PNP.