Less than six months after he was forced to give up his parliamentary seat under a cloud of controversy and suspicion, Ronnie Thwaites is hoping to contest a Central Kingston division in the local government election to be held by the end of next March, ruling People’s National Party (PNP) sources said yesterday.

He may even have his eyes set on becoming chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) and the next mayor of Kingston, they said.

Thwaites himself could not be contacted for comment last night, but Paul Burke, the chairman of the PNP’s Region 3, which covers constituencies in Kingston and St Andrew, confirmed that the former Central Kingston MP has signalled that he is ready to get back into active politics.

“Ronnie Thwaites was an excellent representative,” Burke told the Sunday Observer. “He was one of the better MPs in Parliament and he can serve the party and the country at many different levels. He has indicated that his finances are in order, and that he is ready once more to represent the party anywhere, at anytime.”

Burke, however, could not confirm that Thwaites was making a bid for a KSAC seat, and possibly the mayorship. But other well-placed PNP sources said that was his current thinking.

“Even with all the unfortunate things that came up earlier this year, the truth is that Ronnie Thwaites is a good man,” said a PNP source, who asked for anonymity. “He has done some outstanding work for poor people, and if he can help the PNP to win back the KSAC he will be well-poised to be the city’s next mayor.”

In the October 16 general election, the PNP lost the Corporate Area to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party but Victor Cummings, the KSAC councillor for the Allman Town division, retained Thwaites’ former Central Kingston seat for the ruling party.

It was not clear last night if the possible Thwaites return has been discussed by the top leadership of the PNP and what was the position of PNP president and prime minister, P J Patterson.

But there were suggestions that the KSAC has deteriorated so badly under its current chairman and Kingston’s mayor, Marie Atkins, that the party would welcome someone like Thwaites in the council once it did not provide a backlash.

“The party is likely to be looking for talented people for the local government election in an effort to turn around the image of the KSAC and local government in general,” said a PNP source.

Thwaites, a lawyer and social justice advocate who won respect and plaudits for three decades of working with the poor, was forced out of his parliamentary seat – and probably a cabinet job – when he voluntarily admitted that a cryptic article by Observer columnist, Mark Wignall, alleging impropriety by a PNP politician referred to him.

Among the allegations that emerged was that Thwaites, a Roman Catholic deacon, had improperly used a property that was willed to the church, and on whose probate he had worked, to secure a loan with a local bank, which then went into default.

However, the late Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus, Samuel Carter, said that he had given Thwaites permission to use the property as collateral – a decision which Carter’s successor, Edgerton Clarke, described as “ill-advised”.

There was also another claim that Thwaites had collected money on behalf of the post office and that $5 million had remained in his law firm’s client account for several weeks.

Thwaites explained that he had operated as a collector for the post office and that the money had been inadvertently lodged to the firm’s account. As soon as he became aware of it, he said, the money was paid over with an offer of interest, which was declined.

Post master general, Blossom O’Meally Nelson, said at the time she had asked the auditor-general to conduct a forensic audit of the transaction, but that report, if it was ever done, was not made public.

Thwaites, who hosts a morning talk show on Power 106 FM, invested in coffee and other ventures in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the coffee business went bust in the mid-1990s and was placed into receivership by the Agricultural Development Bank.

Thwaites has repeatedly said publicly that like other people in such financial trouble he had to put up all his personal assets to cover his debts and was working his way out of the bind.