General-Secretary of the People’s National Party (PNP) Donald Buchanan yesterday shrugged off a suggestion that the party could lose votes in Portmore over the contentious toll road issue in next month’s general elections.

“I expect that the PNP is going to win all the votes in the area,” Buchanan told the Observer yesterday. “I am confident because we know the people of Portmore have been served well by the PNP since 1989. All the developments in Portmore, all the training facilities and schools have been done under a PNP administration, so I’m sure the people will continue to repose confidence in the PNP.”

Buchanan was responding to a comment made by chairman of the All Hellshire Leadership Council, Byron Buckley, on Saturday that Portmore leaders, in their next meeting with residents, would present the toll dispute as an issue on which to vote.

“We are going to report to the residents for them to decide whatever action they wish to take, including making a decision at the polls,” Buckley was reported by the Sunday Observer.

Buckley’s comment came after a series of meetings between representatives of the Portmore community and government officials to address several concerns the residents had over the toll road fell through. At the last such meeting, scheduled for three weeks ago, Buckley said the delegation of community leaders left in disgust after waiting for an hour at Jamaica House without the meeting being convened.

Some of the issues on which they lobbied the Government were a decrease in the toll and a package deal to offer special discounts.

According to Buckley, the feeling the group now had was that the people of Portmore were being slighted.

Yesterday, however, Buchanan maintained that the process of dialogue between the groups concerned had not ceased.

“I continue to be in dialogue with the citizens of Portmore and I will continue those discussions until such time until we mutually agree on the best way forward for the people and for the state,” he said.

“My understanding is that some of them (meetings) fell through… but the dialogue has been going on,” he added.

In the meantime, the PNP general-secretary said a meeting would be held tomorrow between himself, representatives of toll operators TransJamaican Highway, the National Road Operating and Construction Company, and the National Works Agency “to look at the issues raised at the first meeting and see where we can go from there”.

The PNP holds three seats in Portmore, one of which encompasses a section of Spanish Town.