CRAWLE, Trelawny — THE Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Donovan White is expected to be sworn in as councillor for the Duncans Division at next month’s regular sitting of the Trelawny Parish Council, after he was declared winner by acclamation at the close of Nomination Day yesterday.

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) made good on its promise not to participate in yesterday’s Nomination Day exercises scheduled for four parish council divisions and the constituency of South West St Catherine.

White, a 41-year-old businessman of Spicy Hill, Trelawny, will replace his father Errol ‘Juppie’ White, who represented the division for almost two decades.

The vacancy for the by-election was created in the division, following the death of the senior White in November 2009, after a long battle with cancer. At the time of his death, he was the deputy mayor of Falmouth, a position he held for two years.

The younger White yesterday handed in his nomination papers to Returning Officer for Northern Trelawny, Ivanhoe Gordon, at 12:17 pm at the Lloyd G Viera Memorial Church Hall in Crawle.

He was accompanied to the centre by a small, but noisy crowd, who included minister of state in the Department of Local Government, Robert Montague, JLP general secretary, Aundre Franklin, JLP caretaker for Northern Trelawny, Senator Dennis Meadows, MP for South Trelawny, Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert and chairman of the Trelawny Parish Council, Colin Gager.

Several other JLP councillors from the Trelawny Parish Council were also on hand to support the White’s candidacy. Prior to his nomination, a handful of Labourites — clad in party colours — gathered at the JLP’s office in Duncans, before making their way to the nomination centre, under police surveillance.

As they made their way along the roughly mile-long journey, the group loudly sang party songs and flashed their ‘victory sign’ to passing motorists and by-standers.

Senator Meadows, who is also White’s campaign manager, paid the nomination fee with thirty $100 bills bearing the image of late JLP prime minister, Sir Donald Sangster. The nomination took roughly five minutes, following which Montague and Meadows briefly addressed the party supporters.

“We are happy that Donovan is the first person to be nominated and he will be the first to be elected,” Montague told the Labourities. Donovan White will continue a long tradition of good representation in this division and I am confident that he will make all of us proud,” he added.

“He will do the work of fixing the roads, bring water to areas, fix the street lights and clean the drains,” said the state minister.

Yesterday, the JLP councillor-elect told the Observer West that he was “willing and able” to serve the division, pointing out that he had been working with the constituents for almost two years. He also pledged his commitment to follow the footsteps of his late father whom he said, “worked assiduously to improve the standard of living of his constituents”.

The Duncans Division forms part of the constituency of Northern Trelawny, and encompasses communities such as Duncans, Spicy Hill, Samuel Prospect, Jackson Town, Brompton, Carey Park, Silver Sands and Rio Bueno.

Over the years, the division has been plagued with an unreliable water supply in areas such as Samuel Prospect, Crawle, Spicy Hill and sections of Jackson Town. Residents in Crawle, Barnstable and sections of Samuel Prospect have also complained about poor road conditions.