FALMOUTH, Trelawny – Former Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for North Trelawny Christopher Jobson have applied to the People’s National Party (PNP) Trelawny executive to be the ruling party’s representative in the Wakefield division.

“I have applied to be the candidate for the division but I haven’t gotten a response as yet. But the response of the people is more than overwhelming,”Jobson told the Observer West.

Jobson, a Trelawny businessman, lost in his bid to represent the North Trelawny seat in the 2002 general election, when he was defeated by the PNP’s Dr Patrick Harris by a majority of 1,189 votes.

Yesterday, secretary of the PNP’s North Trelawny constituency, Phillip Service, confirmed that he had received Jobson’s application.

“I have gotten an application from him,” said Service, who is also the councillor (PNP) for the Martha Brae division of the Trelawny Parish Council.

The former JLP candidate who said that he has already submitted his application for membership in the PNP, claims that his decision to cross “the political floor” was in response to numerous calls, especially from young voters in the Wakefiled division.

The division is currently held by former Mayor of Falmouth, councillor Jonathan Bartley (JLP), who convincingly won the two previous elections, defeating the PNP’s Donald Kindness and Lorna Thorpe, respectively.

Charles McKenzie who has been the PNP’s chairman and caretaker for the division for more than a year was not prepared to comment on the latest development when he was contacted by the Observer West.

But at least one PNP North Trelawny executive member is already vehemently opposed to Jobson’s intention to represent the party.

“I am strongly objecting to his candidacy on the grounds that from the 2007 election he had expressed an interest to join the PNP and when the Comrade leader (Portia Simpson Miller) was in Falmouth in 2007 and he was invited on the platform, he refused,” said the constituency executive, who requested anonymity.

“And since that time he did not express anymore interest in the PNP at all. He was not seen again until at the (general election) victory celebration on December 29 so it is just recently he is again showing interest,” he argued.

But Jobson said that he was prepared to set aside his candidacy “for the time being” to avoid controversy, insisting however, that he has matured politically and is suitable to represent the division.

“As a man who represented the JLP in 2002 I have learnt a lot and know what representational politics is all about. Also, I have realised after the election on December 29 general election that the people not joking, so you have to give them good representation,” he argued.

He declared that road repairs would be his number one priority, if given a chance to represent the division.

The 39 year- old Jobson maintained that he possesses the ammunition to defeat Bartley, someone who he claims he was instrumental in recruiting to contest the division for the first time in 2003.