MONTEGO BAY, St James — At a function in Montego Bay to rename the St James Parish Council municipal building in honour of former Montego Bay mayor Cecil Donaldson 10 years ago, the honoree publicly made one request:

That his son, Noel, who was the mayor of the resort city at that time — and was present at the ceremony — returns to the fold of the People’s National Party (PNP), which he had left in 1997, before becoming a member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

But the younger Donaldson, sporting a broad smile, shook his head and remarked, “no, no way” eliciting much laughter amongst the huge gathering at the function where then Local Government Minister Portia Simpson Miller was the guest speaker.

Simpson Miller, now prime minister, had also jokingly urged Noel to return to his former party, pointing out that he was “on the wrong side”.

Ten years on, both the elder Donaldson and Simpson Miller have got their heart’s desire.

Last week, Noel was elected unopposed to the post of chairman of the PNP East Central St James constituency at the party constituency conference held at the Dumfries Community Centre, setting the stage for what is widely believed to be a very competitive match-up between himself and his former colleague, Ed Bartlett, a JLP stalwart, in the next general election.

When contacted on Friday, the elder Donaldson, who celebrated his 86th birthday yesterday, said his son should have been back in the PNP a long time ago.

“He (son) should have gone back long time where he should have been from the beginning,” he stressed.

A retired trade unionist, the elder Donaldson was mayor of Montego Bay from 1966 to 1969 and 1971 to 1975 and also a councillor for 25 years, having entered the St James Parish Council as a councillor in 1956 on the PNP’s ticket.

He has been credited for being among the set of St James Parish Council representatives who successfully lobbied for the restoration of city status to Montego Bay in 1980, which among other things paved the way for the twinning with other cities across the world.

The younger Donaldson, an attorney, walked out of the PNP almost 16 years ago after a verbal spat with key PNP functionaries in the region over the chairmanship of the constituency.

At that time, it was reported that the then young politician became embroiled in the controversy with members of the constituency, after he was reportedly denied the chance of representing the PNP in North West St James in the 1997 general election.

Apparently disappointed, Donaldson left the party in a huff, and was accepted in the JLP in 2002.

A year later, he successfully contested the Norwood Division of the St James Parish Council on the JLP’s ticket, defeating the PNP’s Dr Lennox Reid.

Soon after, he was appointed chairman of the St James Parish Council and mayor of Montego Bay.

At the end of the life of the council, he did not seek re-election in the division, but later sought to wrest the St James South parliamentary seat from Derrick Kellier, a veteran PNP member, in the 2007 general elections.

But despite a spirited challenge, Donaldson failed in his bid to unseat Kellier, now 67, falling short by a majority of 249 votes.

It was the first time that the veteran politician, now in his sixth term as MP, who is also a PNP vice-president, has ever won a parliamentary seat with such a slim margin, since he entered representational politics more than 25 years ago.

Donaldson, however, was praised for his efforts and was rewarded with the top job — regional director — at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Western Region in Montego Bay under the JLP administration, after it regained state power in 2007.

He also chaired the state-run Rural Water Company.

Sunday Observer sources say, however, that Donaldson came under pressure from key JLP members in St James when he supported Dr Christopher Tufton in the party’s fractious Deputy Leader for Area Council Four race, contested by the then incumbent Dr Horace Chang, Tufton and Don Foote in November 2010.

Following the internal election which was won by Dr Tufton, Donaldson told the Jamaica Observer that the police had unearthed “credible information” regarding a plan to murder him because of his support for Dr Tufton, the then Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, who was also MP for South Western St Elizabeth.

The source said, since that time, Donaldson has been sidelined by the party.

His recent re-entry into the PNP was therefore not surprising, the source said.

Efforts by the Sunday Observer to reach Donaldson for a comment were unsuccessful, but at last Sunday’s constituency conference he vowed to win the seat for the PNP whenever the next parliamentary election is held.

“Comrades, we have an election coming up and we are waiting on the Comrade Leader to announce the date, but this time we are going to tek it to them (JLP) Comrades. Comrades, I am going to ensure that we walk every nook and cranny of East Central St James,” Donaldson told the gathering.

“It is very important for us to understand that what the people of the constituency have had for the last 13 years is absentee representation… no more absentee representation in East Central St James, no more. I commit to you, Comrades, that on the night of the election, victory will be declared for the People’s National Party in East Central St James and then you will get the type of representation that you deserve,” he declared.

St James East Central comprises a number of deep rural communities such as Chatham, Paisley, Goodwill and Latium, all of which are characterised by poor infrastructure.

On the other hand, however, the constituency also encompasses the developed Rose Hall area, which has seen millions of dollars of investments in recent years.

In the last general election, Bartlett, a former high-profile minister of tourism, won the seat for the JLP over the PNP’s Cedric Stewart by 174 votes — polling 6,382 to Stewart’s 6,208, while independent candidate Royston Richards got 24, in the roughly 51 per cent voter turnout in the constituency.

Bartlett has been the member of parliament for the constituency since 2002.

Yesterday, Ian Hayles, the newly elected chairman of the PNP Region Six, said Donaldson is an asset to the party, as he expressed confidence that the attorney will win the seat for the party in the upcoming general election.

“Donaldson will be a remarkable candidate who will take the seat from Bartlett who has done little or nothing in the constituency over the past 13 years,” said Hayles, who is a two-time member of parliament for Hanover Western.

He argued that Donaldson is a seasoned campaigner who possesses great organisational skills and “knows how to build a winning team”.

Stressing that Donaldson will be a good political representative, the PNP Regional chair said as a MP for St James East Central his priority would be to address the existing poor road conditions and the lack of potable water in the constituency.