Karl Blythe’s constituency workers are unhappy at his omission from the new Cabinet, charging that he has been unfairly treated by the People’s National Party (PNP) for which he has worked long and hard for more than 20 years.

And at least one worker, Ann Lorne, believes Blythe should quit in protest against what she viewed as the disrespect shown to him by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

“I am disappointed. We did not expect this,” Lorne told the Observer at the weekend. “I think he should resign. This is total disrespect. After all Dr Blythe has done for the party; 1984 until now not good enough? From now, I am not going to be neither a party worker nor a supporter anymore.”

Judith Lettman was equally upset, saying that she could not understand why Simpson Miller overlooked Blythe for a post in the executive. “That is not fair to Dr Blythe. That is not right,” she said.

Fitzroy Pinnock expressed a similar view. “He has worked hard for the party and has served his previous ministry well,” Pinnock said. “I see absolutely no reason why he should be left out.”

Blythe, who resigned as the water and housing minister in April 2002 at the height of what has now become known as the Operation Pride Scandal, had made it clear last month that he expected to be included in Simpson Miller’s Cabinet.

His expression of confidence came after he strenuously denied dumping delegate votes to help Simpson Miller win the PNP presidency on February 25 over himself, Dr Peter Phillips and Dr Omar Davies.

“I just know that anybody in the party who is really serious about the government and my performance should find it very difficult to leave a man like me out of a Cabinet,” Blythe, who represents Central Westmoreland, unabashedly told the Sunday Observer in an interview published on March 5.

His resignation from the Cabinet, during P J Patterson’s tenure as prime minister, came after a government-commissioned probe of the operations of the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) pointed to ministerial interference, cronyism, poor management and possibly corruption in Operation Pride, the government’s shelter programme.

The commission, chaired by retired civil servant Erwin Angus, indicated overruns of $928.25 million in respect of 21 sample projects and another $113.7 million on five schemes that were abandoned.

The commission also said that Blythe, when he took over as housing minister in February 2000, went on an expansion spree – overturning a policy that was put in place because of previous difficulties – and told bureaucrats to allow paperwork to catch up with expansion.

However, an examination of the report, conducted by Ambassador Dr Kenneth Rattray, accused the Angus team of failing to carry out a rigorous and in-depth examination of the facts before arriving at its conclusions and cleared Blythe of any wrongdoing.

Rattray also said that the Angus team based its conclusions on assertions which amounted to hearsay and accused the investigators of failing to provide Blythe with an opportunity to challenge those conclusions.

Since then, Blythe has remained out of the Cabinet and has used that time to network with PNP delegates.

On the eve of the February 25 vote, Patterson defended Blythe’s stewardship of the Pride programme, declaring at a function in Westmoreland that Blythe was not guilty of any act of corruption.

But last Friday, after Simpson Miller had named her 14-member Cabinet the night before, Blythe announced that he was contemplating his political future, given his omission from the team.

“I am haunted by a ghost from the past,” he said in a press release, “but what is devastating is that I know not its origin, therefore, I am unable to confront it.”

“As one who has a deep abiding faith in God, I can say with a very clear conscience that I know of absolutely nothing that would make me an unfit person to be appointed to anyone’s Cabinet,” he added, arguing that if he was guilty of any wrong he would not have offered himself as a presidential candidate.

He said that he had served the PNP for the past 20-odd years to the best of his ability and would now consult with God, his constituents, party workers, family and close friends, after which he will announce his decision.

Lorne was the only constituency worker who suggested that Blythe should resign. The 10 others contacted by the Observer said they were disappointed and pointed to the work Blythe had done for the party.

“Dr Blythe is a very good worker,” said Milton Myles. “I am disappointed because, based upon what happened in the past, he has been cleared by the Rattray Committee, and in the last days of former prime minister Patterson he was praised for the work he did in Operation Pride.”

Michael Smith said he had been “looking forward” to an appointment, while Patrick Marzouca said “we were hoping we would get a minister from Westmoreland”.

Myrtle Murdock agreed. “We are not feeling good, because we know he is a hard worker,” she said. “We believe that he deserves a place in the Cabinet.”

Similar views were voiced by Mavis Hibbert, Maurice Reynolds, Copeland Bartlett and Trevor Mutchette.

However, there was broad consensus among the constituency workers not to challenge Simpson Miller’s decision, and Hibbert speculated that the prime minister was probably waiting until after the next general election to name Blythe to the Cabinet.

“Maybe it is because the Cabinet is so small she might wait until after the election or something,” said Hibbert.