ST ANDREW, Jamaica – Incumbent Member of Parliament Damion Crawford was a short while ago defeated by businessman Peter Blake in his bid to represent the governing People’s National Party (PNP) in the St Andrew East Rural constituency in the next general election.

Crawford received 166 votes to Blake’s 217 at the candidate selection exercise on the compound of the PNP’s Old Hope Road headquarters in St Andrew.

There was one spoilt ballot among those cast.

There was high drama when the counting began to determine whether the standard-bearer for the party in the next general election would be Crawford or Blake.

Supporters of Crawford stormed on to the compound of the ruling party chanting: “Damion, Damion, Damion!”

Amidst a downpour due to a trough induced by Category three Hurricane Joaquin, Crawford’s supporters danced in the showers, insisting that Crawford is the more suitable candidate.

Shouts of “no Crawford, no vote’, echoed throughout.

However, after the ballots were counted, Blake emerged as the winner of the selection exercise.

Crawford is the last among several PNP members of parliament who have been challenged for their candidacy.

In the December 2011 General Election Crawford polled 9,634 to defeat the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Joan Gordon-Webley (9,375).

The seat was previously won by the JLP’s Joseph Hibbert in 2002 and 2007; the PNP’s Oliver Clue in 1993 and 1997; the PNP’s E G Barrett in 1989; and Gordon-Webley in 1980.

Kimone Francis