MORE than 1,000 paid up members of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) will today elect a replacement candidate for outgoing Member of Parliament OT Williams in the West St Andrew constituency.

The hopefuls, trade ambassador and former cabinet minister Anthony Hylton and former state minister Colin Campbell, both represented other constituencies in the past, but got booted from their seats in the 2002 general election.

The selections, originally scheduled for April, were put off after a last-minute request for an audit of the party groups stalled the voting.

The party was asked by one of its deputy general secretaries, Linton Walters, to conduct the audit to eliminate bogus groups.

Paul Burke, the former chairman of the PNP’s influential Region Three, had raised the issue of ‘paper’ groups, saying they were used by some constituency representatives to create power bases and distort internal elections.

In January, the party said that it had successfully eliminated bogus groups with tighter rules that make it mandatory for constituencies to show that groups held regular meetings and had democratically-elected executives – a move away from paper groups, whose legitimacy rested on them being in good financial standing.

The audit now completed, the way is now paved for today’s voting.

Campbell lost his former East St Andrew seat in 2002 to the Jamaica Labour Party’s St Aubyn Bartlett.

Hylton, the former minister of Foreign Trade, lost to the JLP’s James Robertson in West St Thomas.

Campbell, who handles information for the party, said today’s voting would take place from different locations.

“Prior to last year, each group of 10 would choose the delegate who would vote. But since the amendments, what happens is that members in good financial standing in the groups will be eligible to vote,” he said in an interview.

Polling stations will be at the Balmagie Primary School, Brook Valley Community Centre, Seaview Gardens Primary, and Basic Schools and the Caenwood Community Centre. Voting is between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm, following which ballot boxes will be taken to the party’s Old Hope Road headquarters for counting.

OT Williams, deputy speaker of the House, is a four-term Member of Parliament, but is not seeking re-election.

virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com