ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – Hostile Comrades at the People’s National Party (PNP) Constituency Office here ordered this reporter from the compound when I visited Tuesday afternoon.

“You do not belong here. Go!” one young woman told me after I entered the office, seeking to get their responses to Member of Parliament Raymond Pryce’s withdrawal from the PNP’s selection process for North East St Elizabeth.

Her chant was quickly taken up by others. A polite, friendly young man escorted me to my car after I stopped – perhaps unwisely – seeking to argue with the group of angry Comrades.

There was no indication of the hostility to come when I first entered the compound. A small group just outside the office smiled and said, “No comment,” when I first approached asking questions.

But the mood changed inside the office when Comrades from an inner room opened their door.

“You know you don’t belong here,” one man said.

“What?” I shouted, pointing out that I had been visiting the PNP offices in Santa Cruz for decades, long before he was born.

At which point the obviously incensed young woman, joined by others, insisted in no uncertain terms that I should leave.

She became yet more hostile when I told them I would be writing about my ejection.

“Write it!” she shouted, “me not afraid of you.”

The hostile response apparently flowed from a perception that this reporter had taken an anti-Pryce stance in covering the news story involving the challenge to the leadership of St Elizabeth North East by Santa Cruz businessman Evon Redman.

As I exited the office, one man suggested that I would be better off visiting with Redman at his business place, less than 200 metres away.