BUFF BAY, Portland – The Jamaica Labour Party’s Daryl Vaz emerged from Wednesday’s official count of the ballots in Monday’s general elections retaining the 6,977 votes he won in the preliminary count, while his People’s National Party (PNP) opponent, Abe Dabdoub, ended with 6,033 votes, 19 fewer than the number reported Monday night, an electoral office official confirmed.

“Both candidates had appointees present throughout the entire two days, and all left with one understanding at 1:00 pm when the recounting ended,” said the official who opted not to be named.

Both men contested the West Portland seat in what, at times, was an acrimonious contest that is now headed for the courts after Dabdoub filed a motion charging that Vaz holds US citizenship and was therefore ineligible to be nominated.

On Monday, after the preliminary results were announced, Vaz thanked his constituents and attributed his victory to hard work and dedication.

“I had no doubt in my mind,” he said. “I have built a relationship with the people and on trust. I have done the work and I expected the result. I want to thank all the people of West Portland, whether they supported me or not, because after this we all have to come together to rebuild West Portland. Regardless of the political persuasion, that is behind us. What we need to do is build and come to a consensus how to move forward in West Portland.”

Vaz said he would be taking a serious look at the infrastructure problems of the constituency. “Roads and water will be looked at,” he said. “There are communities that have no roads, they have no water. and you can’t build a constituency or a parish without these. I am really looking forward to working with the people of West Portland on a non-partisan basis to rebuild.”

Acknowledging that farmers would always be affected by natural disasters, Vaz said that what was important was to make the proper preparations “because every year we have a hurricane season”.

“What we have to do is to prepare to make the damage minimal.”

Vaz also said that reviving tourism in the constituency was big on his agenda. “Dragon Bay is the first order of business because it is there and all it really needs is to get re-started,” he said. “We have to market tourism in the parish of Portland to the boutique, high-end market because we don’t have the land space to do like Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Negril. I am going to go across the world to market Portland and give it its true potential.”

The member of parliament-elect also promised to work closely with environmental groups, saying he would have dialogue with them, show them what is planned for the constituency and hopefully get their consensus on the plans.