MONTEGO BAY, St James — Independent candidates Lester Crooks and Paul Patmore won the Riverside Division in Hanover and the Lorrimers Division in Trelawny, respectively, as the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) came out of yesterday’s Local Government Elections with control of three of the four parish councils in western Jamaica.

Preliminary results showed that the PNP won the Hanover, St James and Westmoreland parish councils, while the party and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) tied with four seats each in Trelawny.

Political observers said last night it was the first time in almost 50 years that an independent candidate was winning a national poll contested in the country. Initial results showed that Crooks, a former JLP mayor, defeated the incumbent JLP candidate Albert Lee by more than 400 votes. The PNP did not nominate a candidate to contest the division.

An elated Crooks, who served as JLP councillor for the Riverside Division from 1998 to 2007, said last night that he was happy to return as councillor for the division. “It is a great pleasure to go back and serve the people,” Crooks told the Jamaica Observer last night.

He said he decided to return to representational politics because the Riverside Division has been neglected for more than four years. “When I was leaving the division in 2007, I told the JLP councillor (Lee) that if he did not represent the people well I am going to return to do it,” Crooks said. He attributed his victory to the “high regard that the people in the division have for me and the quality of representation they know that I will offer”.

It is widely believed that Crooks, who resigned as chairman of the Hanover Parish Council in 2007 amid controversy, will cross the floor to the governing PNP. Last night he was spotted in the town of Lucea, Hanover, among PNP supporters donning an orange coloured shirt emblazoned with the party’s logo.

Meanwhile, Patmore, who triumphed over deputy JLP mayor of Falmouth, Steve Warren and the PNP’s Kevin Guy expressed his gratitude to the voters who supported him. “I am overwhelmed… just extremely happy for the people who came out and supported the independent concept because I could not do it on my own,” said Patmore, who polled 1,526 votes to Warren’s 908 and Guy’s 366.

Patmore promised to undertake a raft of projects in the division, including the improvement of a water supply system he initiated in the Lime Tree community of Trelawny. He also hinted at plans to motivate persons to participate in a massive Labour Day project to clean drains and carry out bushing in the division.

Patmore also revealed plans to source funding locally and internationally to assist in “rebuilding the division” which he claims has been “run down over the years”.

Prior to yesterday’s polls, Patmore had argued that if elected, he would consider crossing the floor to the JLP. The councillor-elect is one of three candidates who were expelled by the JLP after they were nominated to contest the Local Government Elections as independents.

The others were Whilbert Whittingham, who contested the Montego Bay South Division in St James and Nakia Nesbeth, who contested the Linstead Division in St Catherine.

— Additional reporting by Horace Hines