Smooth process in Eastern St Andrew
NOMINATION Day activities in Eastern St Andrew went off without a hitch Tuesday as Dr Trevor Munroe of the People’s National Party (PNP), and incumbent, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Dr St Aubyn Bartlett secured their candidacy for the August 27 polls.
Munroe was the first to arrive at the nomination centre at Mona High School in Kingston, amidst much fanfare and with a throng of orange-clad supporters.
The smiling professor, formerly a lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, jogged into the venue, his 10 nominators in tow to pay his nomination fee in $1,000 notes.
Bartlett, a veterinarian, arrived later with his own crowd of green-clad supporters, who exuded enthusiasm and good cheer as they rang the bell – the longstanding symbol for the JLP. He paid his fee in $100 notes.
Tuesday’s nomination signalled a crucial step in the battle for the constituency over the next three weeks.
Both men appeared optimistic of victory when the 18,045 people eligible to vote in that area, should they so choose, go to the polls on August 27.
“It is his area and all his history is here with him. So let’s leave it at that,” said a smiling Dr Bartlett of Munroe.
Munroe, for his part, said his chances were excellent.
“My chances are excellent and the areas in which the PNP lost in 2002 – mainly Standpipe, Cedar Valley, Mona Heights, Hope Pastures, Tavern, Hermitage – these are areas in which I have got a very strong, positive and encouraging response,” he told the Observer.
Their optimism aside, the candidates said they would be working to shore up their support in the constituency.
“The strategy is to basically continue the work that we have been doing. We are operating on two pillars – one is education and the other is community development,” Dr Bartlett said. “We have established the Eastern Bell education project, which administers our education programme and we have the other community development project, which really underpins the whole movement in the constituency in terms of dealing with the community centre, with roads, with just about everything.”
