SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland – An intense political contest is on in earnest in Central Westmoreland among five People’s National Party aspirants vying to replace Karl Blythe as the party’s candidate for the seat.

Blythe, the ruling PNP vice chairman and MP for Central Westmoreland announced last month that he would not seek re-election at the next polls which is constitutionally due next year, but which pundits believe will be called within the next three to four months.

Since Blythe’ s announcement in June, the five aspirants- businessman Carey Wallace, attorney Leonard Green, electrical engineer Dr Victor Watt, businessman and engineer Paul Wilson, and consultant Paul Buchanan – have been campaigning vigorously in the constituency which has been represented by Blythe, for more than 15 years.

Last week, as the campaign intensified, the aspirants were summoned to a meeting at the party’s Old Hope Road Office by officials of the PNP Monday to set out the framework for the political campaigning in the constituency.

The aspirants have all expressed confidence that they will get Blythe’s job.

“My chances are very good. At this time I am front-runner,” Green said on Wednesday.

“Based on the work that my team has done in the area and the responses that we have been getting, I strongly believe that I am the front runner,” he argued.

According to the Savanna-la-Mar attorney, his team, headed by campaign manager Roger Allen, has visited most of the delegates in the area and has had three mass meetings in the constituency.

“All of these meetings were well supported and came off very well,” he said.

Green, 50, is no stranger to the parish of Westmoreland and to representational politics.

Educated at Calabar High School in Kingston and the Norman Manley Law School, University of the West Indies, he has been an attorney for more than 25 years and has practiced in Savanna-la-mar for some two decades.

He contested the North East St Andrew seat on the PNP’s ticket in the 2002 general elections, but lost to the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Delroy Chuck.

Earlier this year, Green was named as one of the aspirants vying to succeed former prime minister PJ Patterson as PNP representative in the constituency of Eastern Westmoreland, but withdrew from the contest, declaring that he needed more time to campaign.

Green also served as chairman of the Negril/Geeen Island Planning Authority and is said to be very popular among the business community in the constituency.

But Wallace’s campaign, several delegates and party supporters in the constituency told the Sunday Observer last week, appears to be well- oiled and rolling smoothly throughout the constituency.

“Wallace appears to have the majority of support in the area. His campaign is going very well and I am supporting him,” said Milton Miles, PNP vice chairman for the constituency.

“His plans and ideas for the constituency are very sound and I believe that he will do very well.”

Miles admits, however, that Green is also popular.

Wallace, 38, is the brother of former JLP senator Brian Wallace, and is a highly respected businessman in Westmoreland.

He has served as technical director at Grace Food Processors Limited, in Savanna-la-Mar, general manager at Mariner’s Negril Beach Club and is presently the chief executive of Island Media Solutions Limited and Negril Escape Resort.

Educated at the University of West Indies and Cornell University in New York, Wallace, a past president of the Kiwanis club of Negril is a director of the Negril Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA).

He became a member of the PNP two years ago.

Miles does not believe, however, that Wallace’s past support for the JLP will have a negative effect on his bid to represent the PNP in the constituency.

“Some people are saying that he is still a labourite, but he is genuine and is for the people so this won’t hinder his chances,” Miles said.

Another party delegate, who did not want to be named, said Wallace’s JLP history was a turn-off for her, though she agreed he was popular.

“He has the crowd, but I am not supporting him because as far as I am concerned he is still a labourite,” said the PNP delegate of more than 20 years.

“Mr Buchanan has worked with Dr Blythe to implement a number of projects in the constituency, so I am supporting him,” she said.

Buchanan, whose backers in the constituency describe him as a “man of action”, has been credited for playing a lead role in the creation of a number of land acquisition projects in Central Westmoreland under the state-run Operation Pride Scheme, during his tenure as senior director at the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC).

He also played a lead role in the Urban/Rural Upgrading Project in the area, where zinc fences were removed and replaced by concrete walls.

“He is very dedicated and hardworking,” said a delegate, pointing out that Buchanan – who was educated at Wolmer’s Boys School, University of the West Indies and York University in Canada – was instrumental in the organisation of the once popular Reno Football Club in Westmoreland.

Buchanan told the Sunday Observer that he was urged by the constituents to throw his hat in the ring because they wanted good representation.

“The people actually came to Kingston for me,” he said.” I had no intention of running but the people said that they wanted me, so I acceded.”

Watt was born in Westmoreland, in Lennox Bigwoods, and did his early schooling at Mannings High. But, local party insiders say the reception from residents to his bid for the seat has been, at best, lukewarm.

But the electrical engineer, educated at the College of Arts Science and Technology (now University of Technology) and Howard University in Washington DC, told the Sunday Observer that he was pleased with the response that he has got from constituents.

“I have the level of training to bring value to any system, especially a system that speaks to the development of all,” he said.

Prior to taking up his current job at UTech, Watt worked at Intel Corporation and at Texas Instruments Corporation.

His work earned him several international awards including the US Black Engineer of the Year Special Recognition Award in 1998.

Like Buchanan, Watt claimed he was asked by constituents to vie for the seat, saying he acceded, having long been interested in representational politics.

The engineer was among three persons vying to replace Patterson in the East Westmoreland constituency earlier this year, but withdrew from the race declaring that the voters’ list was flawed.

Paul Wilson, the other aspirant, resides at Frome in the constituency and has served the sugar industry in various capacities, for more than two decades.

Known as the “real sugar man”, Wilson, who has studied at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, Trinidad and at Volcani Center, Bet-Dagan, Israel, said he was very pleased with his campaign.

“I have been doing my groundwork over the past four weeks and the response is very good,” said Wilson.

According to Wilson, constituents have expressed an interest in supporting him because of his many humanitarian deeds.

“I have had a strong social and corporate relationship with the people in the area,” he said.

“I have assisted people with water when there was water shortage; I have dug pits at many homes; and when persons are sick and when they have funerals, I assisted them.”

Added Wilson: “The people of Central Westmoreland know of my track record and I bring to the table the added benefit of being able to attract votes from the JLP.”

Deputy general secretary of the PNP Julian Robinson, who met with the aspirants last week, described them as ” highly successful individuals who all have a contribution to make to the party.”

But even as the five aspirants campaign vigorously to get Blythe’s job, a decision is yet to be made on what method will be used to determine who gets the nod to replace Blythe.

“There will be a selection of some sort but I can’t say when and the format it will take,” Robinson said.

He explained that the Officers of the party are expected to meet this week to make a decision on the matter, and set a timetable for the installation of a new candidate for the party.

Whoever gets the nod will face the JLP’s Russell Hammond, a former MP, in the upcoming general election which must be held by 2007.

cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com