Noted scientist and educator Dr Dennis Minott has applied to represent the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) in Portland Eastern in the next general elections, a move that will see him challenge incumbent member of parliament Dr Lynval Bloomfield.

Minott confirmed to the Jamaica Observer that he filed his application on June 29 in a letter to PNP General Secretary Paul Burke, saying that he took the decision after being persuaded by people in the constituency, friends and even former political foes.

“They feel very much that the constituency has not been served at all,” Minott told the Sunday Observer on Friday. “There’s nothing that anybody can point to that has been accomplished in the past four years, other than stuff that have been in train from Dr Rhodd’s days.”

Dr Donald Rhodd, who first won the seat in 1997, decided not to seek re-election in the December 2011 general election and was replaced by Bloomfield, who beat the Jamaica Labour Party’s Patrick Lee.

Minott said he was also driven by his disappointment at the neglect to which the constituency has been subjected.

“It’s truly phenomenal — and I don’t use words lightly — the sense of the neglect of this constituency,” he said.

“The people feel very, very displeased at the way in which Portland is being handled, particularly by the poor level of representation, and that goes for both East and West Portland,” Minott argued.

Asked how Bloomfield had reacted to his challenge, Minott said: “I don’t even know if he’s heard. He’s so out of touch he might just not have heard, even though it’s common knowledge now.”

But on Friday evening when the Sunday Observer contacted Bloomfield he said that while he had heard talk of people aspiring to challenge him, he had not yet been officially informed by the PNP Secretariat. As such, he said he could not, at this time, comment on the question of a challenge.

Asked to respond to Minott’s charge that nothing of significance has been done in the constituency over the past four years, Bloomfield said: “More has been done in the last three years,” but he would let the facts play out by themselves.

He said just last Thursday he met stakeholders in the Rio Grande Valley and the National Works Agency and $160 million in investment will begin this week with work on the road from Fellowship to Moore Town, valued at $145 million. He also said that two bridges are scheduled to be constructed in Comfort Castle and Mill Bank.

“Of course, work on Boston Beach is ongoing. I’m sure we’re going to be spending $25 million to $30 million on the Boston upgrade, and the Winnifred Road is expected to happen as well, so things are happening all over the place,” Bloomfield said.

“We believe in infrastructure because it is one of the key areas necessary for our sustainable development and we are focussing on those things,” he added.

Bloomfield also said that on Friday morning he visited the families of three persons who have been missing at sea for 11 days and that he had been keeping in touch with the Marine Police on the matter.

“So we’re in touch with the people, and once you’re in touch with the people and they trust you, then they will deliver when it counts,” he said.

But Minott said that one of the reasons that he has been approached to take over the constituency is the fact that he actually lives there.

“Bloomfield is from outside of the parish, he doesn’t seem to have a feel for the parish,” Minott said. “Portland has not, for a long time, had any major representation in things that matter by people who are born here, or grow up here, or live here.

“That’s a big part of the sentiment right now, and I believe that my coming forward has been greeted because I’m from here and I live here and I employ here,” said Minott who founded and runs the A-QuEST programme that prepares top Jamaican students for colleges abroad.

Asked if he had plans to tackle the problems he has identified in the constituency, Minott said: “Yes, very much so. I’ve had a long time to think about it.”

He said he has been listening to the constituents and, based on the nature of his professional work, “not just in education, but the development work I’ve done in energy, science, rural development, at the UN, for certain places in the Caribbean, The Philippines, Malaysia, and as far away as China, there are a lot of ideas I have as to what can be done for Portland, and it doesn’t necessarily mean only things to do with tourism. Yes, tourism is a given, but Portland is much more than that.”

He said the first problem he would tackle is unemployment by attracting investments in industrial activity.

He also said that the parish, given its climate and relative safety, was perfect for the establishment of retirement homes.

Minott also said the poor quality of roads in the parish is “getting in the way of commerce” and argued that a lot of idle land there needed to be put into production.

“I think I know where some of the money can come from, other than Government coffers,” Minott said. “It’s something I’ve given a lot of thought and I have been speaking with several people who live overseas and who have a love for Portland.”

Among those people are his former A-QuEST students, numbering more than 3,000, whom he said are well connected and eager to help Jamaica.

“Many of them would love to do something, and if they can do something in an area where I am, it would mean a lot to them,” Minott said.

This is not Minott’s first attempt to represent Portland Eastern. In 2006 he applied to challenge Rhodd, and in 2010 when Rhodd stepped down from active politics Minott was among four aspirants, including Bloomfield, for the seat.

In the late 1970s, Minott was among a group of scientists and energy experts from Jamaica, Barbados, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, and St Lucia who established the Leucaena project in response to the energy crisis at the time.

The group produced energy as well as animal feed from the Leucaena plant, which is referred to in some parts of the world as the ‘miracle tree’ and in Jamaica as ‘wild tamarind’.

His A-QuEST programme has been responsible for securing scholarships for Jamaican students to some of the best universities in North America and Europe, and just this year one of his students — Hampton’s Alexia Davidson — became the first Jamaican to win a scholarship to Yale-NUS in Singapore, one of the world’s most sought after universities.