Black River, St Elizabeth — AGAINST a backdrop of divisiveness in recent years and months, the People’s National Party (PNP) in South West St Elizabeth projected a united face at a mass meeting in Black River on Monday night.

With the nomination of candidates set for Dec 12 and parliamentary elections on December 29, Councillor Mordant Mitchell of the Black River Division, who, on occasions in the past, has been at odds with the party’s candidate Hugh Buchanan, was among those calling for total and united support from comrades.

“Hugo Buchanan has to get the support of all of us,” Mitchell told thousands of Comrades who gathered in the Black River town centre, following a tour of sections of the parish by the rally’s main speaker, party leader Portia Simpson Miller.

“One love, one heart, one PNP in South West St Elizabeth,” Mitchell later told Observer West.

Stanley Redwood, the PNP candidate who was beaten by current Member of Parliament (MP) Chris Tufton in 2007, was equally resolute in support of Buchanan — son of the late PNP MP and Cabinet Minister Donald Buchanan.

“Is people power time now and I want everyone of you to know I am endorsing Hugo Buchanan 100 per cent,” said Redwood. “I will walk with him in Forest Mountain, I will walk with him in Retrieve and I will walk with him on the plains. The PNP is united and the PNP is strong and we are on a mission to get rid of this Government.”

An energetic Buchanan assured Comrades that the size of the turn out — which platform speakers claimed was mainly from South West St Elizabeth — was a “signal of victory for the PNP”.

He claimed it was a “massive demonstration to the JLP Government that we tired of three-card tricks”.

Buchanan also ridiculed the representation of Tufton over the last four years, claiming that “all he has brought to South West St Elizabeth is tough times”.

Current Member of Parliament for Central Westmoreland and former MP for North East St Elizabeth Roger Clarke zeroed in on what he suggested was Tufton’s inadequacy as Minister of Agriculture — a portfolio the latter held until mid-year before being reassigned to the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

According to Clarke, under Tufton’s watch as Agriculture and Fisheries Minister there had been production declines in a range of areas, including sugar, bananas, coffee, milk, beef, and fish.

He told the crowd that the JLP had taken political power four years ago with promises of transforming agriculture in a way that would enable farmers to move on from the use of donkeys to “SUVs” and other high-end vehicles. Instead, claimed Clarke, “after four years of JLP Government, (the farmer) cannot buy another jackass”.

Clarke argued that such had been the hard times under the JLP that “anybody in this crowd who would vote JLP , love suffering”. In the circumstances, he said, “Christopher Tuff Times must go”.