WITH general elections expected before year-end, the Observer’s Western Bureau will help you get to know your candidates in this end of the island.

Check this column every Saturday for information about those who are seeking your vote. Who are the candidates and why should you vote for them?

This week, meet the National Democratic Movement’s Cornel Cameron.

Name: Cornel Cameron

Date of Birth: September 22, 1949

Constituency: East Central, St James

Cameron, who is married with three children, was born in the John’s Hall community inside his constituency.

He received his early education at the John’s Hall Primary School and later went to Cornwall College in Montego Bay.

He now lives at Catherine Hall in St James and operates a grocery/haberdashery and a car rental business.

The 52 year-old Cameron joined the NDM in 1995, and said that should he become the next member of parliament for East Central St James, he would seek to develop his constituency. His areas of focus, he said, would include infrastructural development, generating investment and the creation of more businesses.

And he urges his constituents not to ‘think with their bellies’ but with their brains in the upcoming elections, and give him and the NDM a chance to work for them.

“What we are asking people is to stop thinking with their belly and start thinking with their brain… The MP must be always in contact… I am the NDM and nobody wants to listen to us because we have no seats in the House but all I am asking the people, even if we can’t win the election, give us some seats. At least give us some say in the House of Parliament, you are testing us. In my constituency, I am asking the people for the job. I am their servant… give me a chance, let me prove myself to them…,” he said.

“I am asking the people that when they come and give you the $10,000 and the $20,000, tek it but make sure yuh nuh keep it a yard because them wi send gunman come tek it back from yuh. Put it in a bank and invest it good. Don’t take the bribes and vote against me. People are saying that the NDM not going to win but I am saying to the people, just work with me and give mi just one term and test me… As you go into Sam Sharpe Square on a Monday morning and you look at the people dem face, not even dinosaur and you know why? Because the light bill come, the water bill come, everything come… the people need income…

“I think MPs must go abroad and solicit business for their constituents, try influence business people to come and do business there and don’t sit and wait on ministers because a minister can only preside over so many people….”

So how does he respond to the question: why should I vote for you?

“A lot of people won’t like me because of the way I look serious but I don’t think anybody is filled with love like me.

“I am a loving person… I love to help people….

“What people need to realise is that government is the servant, not the boss so I am not going into politics fi nobody call mi boss. Call me your servant or your leader, which would be more appropriate for me?

“I love to see people ambitious in life and help each other, that builds a strong nation…. What I am telling people is that both of us must work. People must understand that government does not provide everything. We the people have to ‘tun wi hand and mek fashion’.

“I don’t have a lot of money but I have ambition…

“I am a researcher, I am a very good observer and I am a good listener… I want to represent the people, and be here with the people and not for a party… Mi nuh inna the party business.”