SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — With the next parliamentary elections now less than two years away, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) caretaker for South East St Elizabeth Frank Witter is being challenged for leadership of the constituency.

Educator James Folkes, Santa Cruz businessman Rex Walker, and Sheila Pryce Brooks, an England-born educator and resident of Red Bank in SE St Elizabeth have thrown their hats in the ring to chair the JLP’s constituency organisation and represent the party in parliamentary elections.

The contest for the support of JLP delegates in the constituency is set for April 12.

Witter told the Jamaica Observer that based on his track record as a former member of parliament, as former parish councillor, former mayor of Black River and his “continuing drive” to “represent the people” he was confident of holding off all challenges.

Nonetheless, Witter told the Observer he was taking nothing for granted.

“I am doing the necessary work and preparation to ensure I remain chairman of the constituency and the next candidate for the Jamaica Labour Party,” Witter said.

He argued that as “one who has transformed what was once one of the strongest PNP (ruling People’s National Party) seat in the country to one that is marginal” he was best equipped to represent the JLP in parliamentary elections, which become constitutionally due in late 2016.

In a seven-paragraph manifesto e-mailed to the Observer, Walker, who operates a hardware business in Santa Cruz, identified education, roads, water, community development, sports development, and the establishment of a tax office as areas of priority, should he become a political representative for South East St Elizabeth.

“Not having a tax office in the area makes it difficult for the people to do basic day-to-day activities,” said Walker. He also said he would lobby for a “proper water system” to deal with chronic issues of drought and would also focus on the construction of a community centre for skills training and “uplifting activities”.

Folkes, principal of Bethlehem Primary in Malvern, said his longstanding role as teacher had given him a great understanding of the needs and concerns of ordinary people. That experience had convinced him that he had a role to play as a political representative and further that he was in a position to win the support of JLP delegates in the April 12 challenge.

“I have done my homework, and that is one of the reasons I have thrown my hat in the ring,” Folkes told the Observer.

He said a cornerstone of his strategy as a political representative would be to continuously promote participation of the people in decision-making.

“I believe that instead of the MP simply making decisions on behalf of people, he should listen to the people,” Folkes said. “I believe we (political representatives) should meet with the people as often as possible and see what the needs are in the communities, on the shop piazzas… I believe if we could do that, many problems would be solved.”

Pryce-Brooks, married and mother of four, who settled in Jamaica five years ago, told the Observer that she was motivated by what she described as very poor political representation.

“When I look around I see a lot of things that should be done, that should be the responsibility of the MP and caretaker, but are not being done,” Pryce-Brooks said.

She said she had been strongly influenced by drought, which devastated southern St Elizabeth and much of Jamaica last year; the need for proper marketing strategies, agro processing and storage facilities to resolve the continuing cycle of shortages and gluts for farm produce; bad road conditions; and what she felt was a slack approach to education and other social issues such as health and care of the elderly.

“Where is Mr Witter in all this?” she asked. She said she was motivated by an appeal from residents in South East St Elizabeth that “now is the time for change”.

Witter was councillor for the Junction Division and mayor of Black River in the JLP-dominated St Elizabeth Parish Council between 2002 and 2007.

In 2007 parliamentary elections, he ended the PNP’s longstanding grip on South East St Elizabeth, defeating Norman Horne by 544 votes. However, in the December 2011 poll, Witter lost to the PNP’s Richard Parchment by 970 votes.

WITTER… I am doing the necessary work and preparation to ensure I remain chairman of the constituency

PRYCE-BROOKS… says a lot of things are not being done by the MP and caretaker

FOLKES… I believe that instead of the MP simply making decisions on behalf of people, he should listen to the people