SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – Derrick Rochester, the veteran politician and trade union leader who retired from active politics in 2002, is on the comeback trail.

The 66 year-old Rochester is to challenge Lenworth Blake, his protégé and successor member of parliament in the South East St Elizabeth constituency, in an internal People’s National Party (PNP) delegates election on May 20.

“For me, what is more important than anything else, is to keep South East St Elizabeth for the PNP and to assist Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller secure her own mandate in the general elections. My decision is also influenced by popular demand from the electorate,” Rochester told the Observer yesterday.

Rochester supported Simpson Miller in the build-up to the fractious internal February elections to determine the successor to P J Patterson as party leader and prime minister. Blake was in the camp of Peter Phillips, Simpson Miller’s chief opponent in the internal poll.

Yesterday, the 53 year-old Blake, who defeated his cousin Franklyn Witter by 73 votes to retain South East St Elizabeth for the PNP in the 2002 general elections, said he was “very, very confident” of fighting off Rochester’s challenge.

“I have been running this organisation for three and a half years and the constituency organisation is 100 per cent behind me,” Blake said.

“The gentleman who is running against me has not attended a constituency executive meeting in three and a half years (and) he has not attended a constituency meeting in three and a half years,” Blake added.

And in an intriguing twist, councilor for the Myersville Division, Winston Sinclair, charged that Rochester’s decision to challenge Blake was the result of a “personal vendetta”. He did not elaborate, but claimed that Blake enjoyed the full support of the constituency executive.

Meanwhile, Maureen Webber, the PNP’s deputy general secretary, said the May 20 internal election at which delegates will choose between Blake and Rochester will be held at a venue to be decided.

A similar run-off involving incumbent member of parliament for South Manchester, House Speaker Michael Peart and challenger Wainsworth Skeffery will take place on the same day.

Webber said yesterday that all other PNP candidates in St Elizabeth had been finalised ahead of Thursday’s cut-off date. Anthony ‘Tern’ Ewing is to replace the outgoing incumbent Donald Buchanan in South West St Elizabeth.

He will face the JLP’s Christopher Tufton. Kern Spencer replacing outgoing incumbent Roger Clarke will contest the North East St Elizabeth against the JLP’s Kenroy Samuels and Lloyd Myrie is to face the incumbent MP for North West St Elizabeth, the JLP’s J C Hutchinson.

Blake or Rochester should face Witter, Mayor of Black River and chairman of the St Elizabeth Parish Council, in parliamentary elections.

It is widely anticipated that Simpson Miller, riding a tide of personal popularity, will call parliamentary elections this year though they are not constitutionally due until next year.

Rochester made it clear yesterday that he felt the PNP’s hold on South East St Elizabeth, which he first won in 1972, was under threat from the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“The last time I won that seat I had a clear majority of over 2,000 votes, and in the local government elections, I had three of the four council divisions and the other was lost by just 15 votes.

But at the last election (2002), the PNP won by just 73 votes and furthermore in the local government elections, the party lost three of the four divisions and the other division (Myersville) we retained with a reduced majority,” said Rochester.

He told the Observer that “community development” and “community partnerships”, which he said had been central to his representation of South East St Elizabeth dating back to 1972, would again be his lead strategy should he “gain the support of the people”.

“I am a firm believer in helping communities to help themselves and to develop partnerships between the community and government.

That is how we developed the infrastructure that has now resulted in Junction being one of the fastest growing communities in Jamaica. That’s the approach I want to take again and that is in line with the prime minister’s plan for nation building through community development,” said Rochester.

He said the food processing factory, Southern Fruits & Foods Processors Ltd in Bull Savannah which he co-manages, would be a tool to assist farmers in St Elizabeth.

Rochester first won the South East St Elizabeth seat for the Michael Manley-led PNP in 1972, taking over from Vivian Blake. He held the seat until 1980 when the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) swept to power by landslide winning all the seats in the county of Cornwall.

Rochester reclaimed the seat when Manley and the PNP took political power, also by a landslide, in 1989 and would retrain it until he walked away in 2002.

“I had been in politics and the trade union movement for 30-odd years and thought it was time to move on, but I believe the situation now requires that I return,” Rochester told the Observer.

Rochester served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour, with responsibility for worker participation from 1976 to 1980, and minister of state in the Ministry of Mining and Public Utilities, 1993-97.

As a trade unionist, Rochester served as island supervisor of the National Workers Union (NWU), 1986-93, and also as president of the union, 1989-93.

Blake has been a member of the PNP’s South East St Elizabeth constituency executive since 1974 and served as councillor for the Myersville Division in 1995-98. He has also been a member of the PNP’s National Executive Council (NEC) for 25 years.

Blake served as campaign manager for Rochester in parliamentary elections during the 1990s, a favour returned by Rochester in 2002.

myersg@amaicaobserver.com