RONNIE Thwaites, who was shamed out of Parliament more than three years ago, took a big step towards a comeback yesterday when he beat Central Kingston MP Victor Cummings for the chairmanship of the PNP organisation in the constituency he was forced to vacate ahead of the 2002 general elections.

Thwaites received 54 of possible 103 delegate votes, against 37 for Cummings.

But it was a bad-tempered contest at the constituency office at 14 North Avenue, where harsh verbal squabbles at one point broke into a fight that was quickly quelled by the police.

So embarrassing was the affair to PNP officials and older supporters that at one point an elderly delegate declared:

“Jesus Christ, look at Norman and Michael Manley PNP”.

Thwaites was not formally a delegate at yesterday’s conference so during the private session of the conference had to stay outside of the meeting hall with journalists and PNP supporters.

He blamed the fights and the bad-tempered behaviour on poor organisation of the event, a seeming swipe at Cummings, the sitting MP.

“I never had any part in it (the organising of the meeting),” he told reporters. “As you know, I have been on the outside, excluded for the whole time.

“I can’t go inside because I am not a delegate. Those who organised it, I do not think have served well.”

But much of the venom was being spewed from outside the conference hall and the press and the police were as much the targets as those MP supporters believed to have an anti-Thwaites agenda.

A physical confrontation briefly erupted when a group of about six men moved towards the area where open voting was taking place.

Two of the men from the group held onto a man who was exiting the building.

The police quickly intervened while people scampered.

“Totally unnecessary,” Thwaites quipped. “Nothing like this ought to have taken place. It was badly organised and I apologise to those who are observing and to the people here. It should never have gone this way.”

Thwaites, a lawyer and social activist, entered Parliament in the 1997 general election, but was forced to resign in the months leading up to the 2002 general election when he publicly disclosed that he was the subject of a series of articles written by Observer columnist Mark Wignall about the propriety of a public personality.

Thwaites’ law firm had two years earlier collected two cheques, valued $10 million, on behalf of the Postal Corporation of Jamaica and lodged them to the firm’s account. The cheques were reimbursed, but it was never clarified on what authority the cheques were lodged although there have been suggestions that Thwaites may have acted as a collector for the Postal Corporation. At the time, Thwaites’ son, Daniel Thwaites, was chairman of the Postal Corporation.

Wignall, in his columns, had also raised the issue of Thwaites, a deacon in the Roman Catholic church, being allowed to use as collateral, for his personal benefit, a property for which he was executor that was willed to the church. The late Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, Samuel Carter, said he gave permission for the deal.

Recently, as it became apparent that Thwaites was edging back into the politics of Central Kingston, Wignall has asked the former MP for explanations of his actions.

Thwaites, however, has not publicly responded to the pressure and he apparently has political momentum and support in Central Kingston in his favour.

PNP sources said that the recent survey by People’s National Party pollster Bill Johnson showed 48 per cent of the people in Central Kingston gave Cummings an unfavourable rating, while only 19 per cent rated him positively.

Moreover, 57 per cent apparently felt that Cummings should be removed as MP and that he would be defeated by the Jamaica Labour Party’s constituency caretaker, Dr Charlton Collie, who he beat in the 2002 elections.

However, the survey said Thwaites would beat Collie by 20 percentage points, according to the PNP sources, although 90 per cent said they believed that under the PNP government, the country was going in the wrong direction.

Cummings, obviously disappointed with yesterday’s result, insisted that he had no part in the intimidation that preceded the voting, but said it was no secret that there were divisions in the PNP ranks in Central Kingston.

“The rift was there and it was encouraged and I was undermined in such a way over the past year,” he said. “I have been trying to work and talk about unity, but some people did not wish to do so. It’s up to the party now to call everybody together to resolve it.”

He has been further weakened, Cummings said, by the lack of resources in the poor, inner-city constituency.

“There is high unemployment and some people believe they must control all work programme,” Cummings said. He believed that available resources should be allocated across party lines.

But Thwaites claimed that he would support Cummings in the effort to build the constituency.

“I thank the people for the vote of confidence to lead the political work of the constituency. I support the Member of Parliament. It was a good contest, a fair contest,” he said.

At the top of the agenda, Thwaites said, was to ensure that the PNP speaks with one voice in the interest of an area where the majority is poor, unemployed and divided by crime.

” I will reach out to everyone who supported Comrade Cummings, support him in his role as Member of Parliament and continue the role of advancing the groups and party structures of the PNP,” Thwaites said.

-virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com