MONTEGO BAY, St James – General Secretary of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), Colin Campbell, has attributed last weekend’s low voter turnout for the final leg of candidate selections in Hanover and St James to inactive membership.

“On the face of it, it may look like there was low voter turnout, but you have to go beyond the numbers,” Campbell told the Observer.

An estimated 40 per cent of registered voters turned out last Saturday to select candidates to represent the party in Western Hanover and North West, West Central, South and East Central St James.

But said Campbell: “It is within the range of what has been happening across the island; many people on the list are really inactive members,” he added.

In fact, Campbell said the party had not recorded more than 70 per cent voter turnout since it began its candidate selections, and the issue was something the party would have to investigate.

“What we have been having is about a 70 per cent turnout,” he argued. “This is something we would have to look into.”

Western Hanover, however, recorded a low 40 per cent turnout, with under 400 of the over 1,200 registered voters turning out to vote in the match-up between sitting MP Ralston Anson and Generation 2000 vice chairman, Ian Hayles.

O D Ramtallie, who marshalled operations in the constituency on Saturday, said he attributed the low turnout to strategic campaigning, which saw candidates targeting only the voters they knew they could motivate to turn out for the selections. “I think the candidates only focused on those they could get to come out and vote,” Ramtallie said.

There were similar low turnouts in West Central St James, where little over 500 of the approximately 1,300 registered voters turned out and North West St James, where just over 400 of the eligible 905 voters turned out.

In North West St James, the defeated Dr Lennox Reid, who received 163 votes to Henry McCurdy’s 232, said the low turnout was a sign that that all was not well with the party.

“You just have to look at the voter turnout today to see that something is seriously wrong,” he said.

East Central and South St James recorded the greatest turnout. In East Central, 582 of the 831 voters voted in the keenly contested match, which saw long-standing councillor for the Springmount Division Donald Colomathi gaining 230 votes, edging out Jacqueline McBean-Blake who got 201 votes, and Hughlin Boyd, 145 votes.

In South St James, 563 of the eligible 848 voters gave their blessing to sitting Member of Parliament and Minister of Labour and Social Security, Derrick Kellier.