BY BALFORD HENRY

Senior staff reporter

balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com

DESPITE losing his bid to represent the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) inSt Catherine West Central, Dr Christopher Tufton should still have a role to play if his party forms the next Government.

“I’ve reached out to him to let him know that he will have a place in any Cabinet formed by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) after the next general election,” Opposition Leader Holness told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

JLP insiders said that at Sunday’s meeting of the party’s Central Executive, members embraced Holness’s “magnanimous” response to Dr Tufton’s loss Saturday to Councillor Devon Wint in a ballot among constituency delegates to select a candidate to succeed Dr Kenneth Baugh.

A release from the party on the meeting of the Central Executive at Belmont Road, said that the Opposition leader “specifically recognised the work and contribution of Dr Tufton to the party and the country as a former minister of Government and senator”.

“Chris has contributed a lot to the JLP, and I am sure he can contribute much more to the country, generally, through the next Jamaica Labour Party Government and Cabinet,” Holness told the meeting.

The JLP leader confirmed yesterday that he will be meeting with both Dr Tufton and the other defeated aspirant Sharon Hay-Webster to discuss and determine ways in which they will play a role in the upcoming general election campaign.

Holness said that the party must “recognise the value and harness the talents of all its members” as it takes its message of prosperity across the island and organise for victory in the upcoming elections.

In one of the two candidate-selection exercises handled by the JLP secretariat on Saturday, Wint, the underdog and a St Catherine businessman, who has represented the Point Hill Division in St Catherine West Central for the past 12 years, received 211 votes to Tufton’s 196.

The vacancy arose from the decision of JLP veteran and former minister of health and foreign affairs and foreign trade, Dr Kenneth Baugh, to retire from representational politics after three terms as MP for St Catherine West Central.

The seat had been dominated by the JLP for several years under the party’s former deputy leader, Enid Bennett, who retired in 1997. Control was wrested by the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Alethia Barker in 1997, when she defeated Baugh on his first try. However, that change lasted only one term, as Dr Baugh took the seat in the next general election in 2002, and has since held on to it.

In the other contest, JLP deputy treasurer and attorney-at-law Leslie Campbell defeated former Member of Parliament Sharon Hay-Webster, 111-36, to gain the nod to represent the party in St Catherine North Eastern. This seat was made vacant by the decision of current MP, businessman Gregory Mair, not to seek re-election after two terms for personal business and family reasons.

Incidentally, Hay-Webster, who had lost her bid to represent the PNP in the constituency, crossed the floor of Parliament to then ruling JLP in 2011, after three terms as a PNP MP representing St Catherine South Central.

JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang informed the party’s Central Executive on Sunday that, following Saturday’s selections, the JLP has now finalised 59 of the 63 candidates needed to complete its slate for the upcoming election.

Dr Chang also reported that the polls went smoothly and should see both constituency organisations settling down quickly and uniting for victory.