Port Antonio Mayor Alston Hunter and his deputy Rupert Kelly were yesterday booted out of office after a no-confidence vote and the election of their Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) colleague Councillor Benny White to head the Portland Parish Council. The People’s National Party’s Dexter Rowland was voted in as Kelly’s replacement.

But the Opposition JLP will today seek an injunction in the Supreme Court to prevent White from being sworn in as mayor. The party’s Standing Committee will also decide, at its next meeting on Monday, what action to take against White who has been branded a power-hungry traitor who has joined forces with the ruling PNP.

“This is an embarrassment to the JLP,” General-Secretary Karl Samuda said last night. “He has sought to remove the legally-constituted mayor. and that could only be done if he sides with the PNP councillors who are only using him as a tool.”

The party, Samuda said, viewed White’s actions as irresponsible and a betrayal of the trust and confidence placed in him by the people of the Fellowship Division and his colleagues within the council. “But most reprehensible of all is that he sided with the PNP in order to attempt to get personal power and authority.”

Less than a minute before White entered the council chamber, Samuda said, he had assured White that as general-secretary he would personally address any concerns the councillor had about efforts, from within the party, to undermine him.

For the past few months, White has bitterly complained that he is being targeted by elements within the JLP because of his open support of claims made by East Portland caretaker Dennis Minott that delegates had been bribed during last November’s deputy leader race. But minutes before yesterday’s vote Samuda thought all had been forgiven.

“His reaction was very positive. I thought I had got through to him and he would have come to his senses,” the general-secretary said. “So what transpired was very surprising to me. Everything that could possibly have been done by myself and other senior officers was done, but to no avail. He still stuck to his determination to be mayor.”

In addition to the JLP team that travelled to Portland to try and talk White out of participating in the no-confidence vote, a group of six PNP councillors also made the trip to convince him to stick to his decision. There was also a visible police presence at the council.

Shortly before 4:00 pm yesterday, White and four PNP councillors voted in new leadership for the council. The vote came after Hunter, faced with the possibility of a no-confidence vote, adjourned the meeting on the grounds that he needed the attorney-general’s office to clarify certain legal points.

“The meeting is improperly called as the notice convening the meeting is improper,” Hunter, who represents the Manchioneal Division, read from a prepared text. “As to the law, the notice should have been addressed to me as chairman. Further, the by-laws that this motion is written under are of 1902, which I have been advised is invalid as a new set of by-laws of 1951 are now in effect. As chairman of this meeting, I need the advice of the attorney-general on this matter.”

Hunter then quoted section 45 of the Parish Councils Act, set aside the no-confidence motion, declared the meeting adjourned and left the council chambers with his JLP colleagues Kelly (Hope Bay Division), Derron Wood (Fairy Hill Division) and Gloria Silvera (Buff Bay Division). They were joined by JLP deputy general-secretary Don Creary, Port Maria Mayor Bobby Montague, party supporter Daryl Vaz, Kenneth Rowe (JLP caretaker for West Portland), and attorney Harold Brady.

However, the council’s secretary/manager Franklyn Smith told the meeting that based on the advice he had received from the Attorney-General’s Department, the meeting had been legally convened.

“The walking out of the mayor was unfortunate, as I was advised by the attorney-general on the matter and the meeting is legal,” Smith told the council.

After Smith examined the attorney-general’s letter (which contained the relevant sections of the by-laws) and placed another quick phone call to the attorney-general’s office, the meeting continued. White was the only JLP councillor in the room.

“He (Smith) returned and told the meeting that he was advised that he was on the right track,” White said. “He recalled the meeting to order, and the action followed.”