JUST over 750 People’s National Party (PNP) delegates are expected to vote at the Farm Heights Community Centre today to select a replacement for Lloyd B Smith, the embattled member of parliament for St James Central.

The venue is the same location where Smith — who last month announced he would not be contesting the next parliamentary elections — launched his campaign four years ago to represent the then newly formed parliamentary seat.

At that time Smith told supporters not to expect handouts from him during his campaign for political office, as he warned that the ‘licky-licky, nyami-nyami’ mentality has to stop.

Local political observers believe Smith’s insistence on not doling handouts to Comrades led to the increased pressures that caused him to throw in the towel.

Today the delegates will choose either Ashley Ann Foster, a 26-year-old attorney, or Henry McCurdy, also an attorney and businessman, as the party’s standard-bearer in St James Central.

The winner is expected to run against the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Heroy Clarke, a former councillor for the Rose Heights Division of the St James Parish Council.

Both Foster and McCurdy have been campaigning vigorously over the past few days in a bid to woo PNP delegates.

Yesterday they both expressed confidence in winning today’s selection exercise.

“I’m feeling quite positive as my chances are excellent. I say this based on the feedback from the delegates with whom I’ve been in constant contact, and even the support I’ve been receiving from members of the People’s National Party, even those in the hierarchy,” the 49-year-old McCurdy told the Jamaica Observer West.

“I’m also confident that, despite the short time frame [for campaigning], I’ve been able to put together a formidable team of party workers which is further complemented by the backing of two of the three councillors in the constituency. The energy I’ve been feeling augurs well for me in the selection process and going forward in representing the constituency,” McCurdy added.

Foster, for her part, emphasised that her team has taken campaigning seriously and “we have applied our usual skills of hard work, discipline, and integrity”.

“The focus of the campaign is to showcase my leadership abilities and commitment to the people, and to reinforce that the Jamaican Dream is well and alive if we all unite to achieve it. So I am very confident that the people will speak favourably,” she argued.

On Tuesday, Foster’s team held a delegates’ meeting in the tough Meghi Top Square of the constituency.

There she promised Comrades that she would create opportunities and work with them to fulfil their dreams.

“Comrades, I come with clean hands and a pure heart. It is my mission to give you a hand so that you will be able, with discipline and hard work, to perform with dignity. My name on that ballot paper on Thursday is my open hand. And when you put your ‘X’ next to my name, you will be putting your hand in mine so that we can clasp our hands together, so that we can access opportunities together, forge a vision for the future, walk and work together with heads held high in dignity, as people of purpose, striving for a better life…,” she told the gathering.

The meeting was also addressed by Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Central Dwayne Vaz and Councillor for the Salt Spring Division Sylvan Reid.

The constituency of St James Central has the largest concentration of inner-city communities in the parish. It encompasses communities such as Salt Spring, Melbourne, Porto Bello, Irwin, Rose Heights, Farm Heights, Rose Mount, Rose Mount Gardens, Albion, Appleton Hall, Canterbury and sections of the downtown area of the resort city of Montego Bay.

In the last general elections Smith, who unsuccessfully contested the St James South parliamentary seat on the Jamaica Labour Party’s ticket in the 1997 General Election, beat the JLP’s Clarke by 98 vote, in a contest that saw roughly 45 per cent of the 24,991 electors casting ballots.

Since then, some 2,535 persons have been added to the voters’ list.

No stranger to elective politics, McCurdy, who has tasted defeat twice at the hands of JLP General Secretary Dr Horace Chang in the St James North West constituency in the 2007 and 2011 general elections, and who lost in the Montego Bay West Division of the St James Parish Council in the 2007 Local Government Election, told the Observer West that he will continue to serve the people of St James Central, whatever the outcome of today’s selection exercise.

He said if he becomes the next MP for the area, he plans to engage Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), other social agencies, including CSJP, and the Montego Bay business community to join in developing practical social interventions to address the raft of social and economic issues affecting the constituency.

“Another area of great focus for me would be education and training.

In general, my plan would be to work with and for the people representing their interests in their communities,” he stressed.