D K Duncan gone clear, Buchanan gets Blythe’s seat
SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland-Paul Buchanan, a consultant with the national security ministry, yesterday beat four other People’s National Party (PNP) contenders seeking to replace Dr Karl Blythe in the Central Westmoreland constituency.
In another significant selection, former PNP mobilisation minister, Dr D K Duncan, received 257 ‘yes’ against four ‘no’ votes in an acclamation, making him the PNP candidate for eastern Hanover in the next general elections. One ballot was spoilt at the Hopewell Primary and Junior High venue.
In a day when tempers flared, the Central Westmoreland selection process was highlighted by a low delegate turnout. But Buchanan managed to secure 409 of the over 800 ballots cast in the 16 polling stations spread out across the Mannings High School.
At the end of the count, businessman, Carey Wallace picked up 195 votes; Leonard Green, attorney-at-law, polled 150; Paul Wilson, businessman, secured 74 votes and Dr Victor Watt, head of the Engineering Department at the University of Technology, got 45 votes.
Earlier, irate supporters of Buchanan streamed onto the school’s premises ranting and raving over the omission of some of their names from the voters’ list, which totalled over 2,500 delegates.
“If Buchanan is not selected, we ago vote fe Labourite,” one man yelled.
Party general secretary Colin Campbell, who at one point had to convene an impromptu meeting with the five aspirants, had his hands full as he worked feverishly to hammer out the delegates’ concerns.
“In some cases that I observed it was genuine omission in terms of the compilation of the data at the office. In other cases, sometimes you have groups with many more numbers than those that have paid their dues. So only financial members can vote. Some people believe they are group members but they can’t vote because their dues were not paid,” Campbell explained.
Meanwhile, Buchanan noted that the delegates were impressed with the ideas he sold them, including the building of a university in the constituency and use of sugar cane by-product to create electricity.
