HOPEWELL, Hanover — The deplorable state of the roads and the lack of piped water in many communities in the constituency of Hanover Eastern could play a major factor in determining which candidate wins the seat on Election Day, February 25.

On Tuesday, Lucea Mayor Wynter McIntosh, who is also the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Chester Castle Division in the constituency, and the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Dave ‘Spoon’ Brown are expected to be nominated to become the next member of parliament for the constituency.

Whoever wins will replace veteran politician Dr DK Duncan, who served the rural constituency for two consecutive terms – 2007 to 2016.

Both aspirants are natives of Hanover.

Last Thursday when the Jamaica Observer visited the constituency, the cry for water and better roads was vociferous in almost every community.

“As you can see, the roads are in a very poor condition. The little work that was done on it recently was carried out by Councillor Devon Brown (JLP and cousin to Dave Brown), myself and a few residents in the community who donated some bags of cement,” said Fitzroy Powell of Powell’s Enterprise Hardware, who operates his business in the Haddington community.

According to Powell, who said he has been doing business in the community for about six years, the deplorable state of the roads has impacted negatively on his business.

“Because I have my business, I have to do a little repairs on it or else I would have lost all of my customers. No one wants to come on the road. Even persons with trucks are complaining about it,” Powell stressed.

He added that the community has been without piped water for months, noting that most residents have to buy the commodity for their domestic use.

Taxi operator Egland Stephenson, who plies the Hopewell to Haddington route, said the poor road condition is a “pain”.

“It’s a fairly new car that I am operating and the roads are giving me hell because of the potholes. I have to be fixing ball joint, control arms, struts… on a regular basis,” said a seemingly frustrated Stephenson, who added that the lack of water is also “a big problem”.

“We don’t want any handouts; all we want are the roads to be fixed and to get water. Whoever can provide these will get our votes.”

JLP supporter Vernal Campbell, a resident of Hopewell, believes that Dr Duncan has failed the constituency miserably during his tenure.

“We need Mr Dave Brown to be our next elected member of parliament (MP). The previous member of parliament (Dr Duncan) has failed this constituency badly. If you look at the roads you will see what I am talking about, so I honestly believe that Mr Dave Brown should be and will be our next member of parliament,” Campbell told the Sunday Observer.

PNP supporter Dwayne Findlay agrees that the poor road condition is the most pressing issue in the constituency, but he argues that the problem will soon be addressed.

“Most people complain about bad roads. But the MP (Duncan) didn’t get enough resources to finish up all of the roads dem, but I think my candidate will soon be able to do a better job,” Findlay stressed.

“You see, Dr Duncan tried his best, but him had to be in Kingston to look it (get funding for projects), so him can’t be in the constituency all the time,” added Findlay as he sought to explain why Dr Duncan is said to be rarely seen in the constituency.

In the 2007 General Election, Dr Duncan defeated the then incumbent JLP representative Barrington Gray by 10 votes following a magisterial recount.

Four years later, he beat the JLP’s Paula Kerr-Jarrett, the charismatic attorney and philanthropist who is the daughter of prominent JLP figure Christopher Bovell, by a margin of 264 votes.

Just over two years ago, Kerr-Jarrett resigned as the party’s standard-bearer in the constituency, citing the need to spend more time in her family business as her reason for leaving representational politics.

Since then, Brown, a successful Montego Bay businessman, has been working assiduously to ensure that the seat returns to the Opposition JLP in the upcoming general election.

“I have been doing canvassing, meeting the residents, undertaking community projects… it’s very challenging, but the needs of the people are great,” said Brown.

Brown, a Cornwall College Old Boy who served the Jamaica Constabulary for roughly 10 years, told the Observer last year that the first few weeks of working in the constituency were tough, due to Kerr-Jarrett’s resignation.

“It was very difficult because a lot of the party workers and supporters believed that she was forced out. They figured that it had something to with the JLP leadership race (of 2013), so they refused to co-operate,” said the 50-year-old motor vehicle parts dealer.

“It reached a stage where I had to get the leader (Andrew Holness) to come down and talk to them,” said Brown, who unsuccessfully contested the Montego Bay North East Division of the St James Parish Council in the local government election of 2012.

But the situation, he said, is now much different.

“Everybody is now on board. The campaign is going extremely good. It’s pretty much where I want it now. We are working as a team now with one goal in mind, and that is to win the seat for the JLP,” the soft-spoken Brown said confidently.

There are three parish council divisions in the constituency. Two – Sandy Bay and Chester Castle – represented by former Lucea Mayor Lloyd Hill and sitting Mayor McIntosh, are controlled by the ruling PNP, while the Opposition party’s Devon Brown, a cousin of the JLP standard-bearer in the constituency, represents the Hopewell Division.

According to the JLP Hanover Eastern candidate, the constituency is characterised by poor roads, lack of potable water and high levels of unemployment.

“It is really a picture of neglect. In fact, it’s neglect of the highest order,” Brown said of the constituency, where subsistence farming is the mainstay of the local economy.

He cites communities such as Friendship, New Milns, Copse, Lethe, Cascade, Pondside, Shettlewood, Jericho, and Claremount as areas where the wanton neglect is glaring.

Expressing confidence that he will take home the seat for his party by a margin of about 300 votes, Brown said as MP, he plans to tackle the high levels of unemployment, poor roads and the lack of piped water in the constituency.

He charged that McIntosh, a two-term councillor, has “not proven himself” in the division he represents.

“He had an MP (Duncan) working with for two terms in a governing party, so he had a lot going for him, but he has absolutely done nothing, so I think that the people are really for a change,” said Brown.

However, Findlay argues that McIntosh will win the seat by a wider margin than Duncan in 2011, pointing out that his candidate was born in the Bessy Baker community in the constituency and has been working in the Chester Castle Division for almost seven years.

“So there is a big difference between him (McIntosh) and Dr Duncan,” Findlay said, stressing that McIntosh will get “a lot of personal votes”.

And an equally confident McIntosh says when he is elected, he plans to tackle the lack of housing solutions, poor roads, lack of potable water and electricity in many of the communities.

He listed a slew of roadways in the constituency that, he said, will have to be addressed under his watch, adding that apart from infrastructural development, the youth will have to be engaged in an effort to put the constituency on a path of growth and development.

“A number of young persons are unemployed. As I travel across the constituency that is one of the things that faces me. My way of leading is to engage them in a series of discussions to see how to get them involved. My way of dealing with it is to teach them how to fish, not to give them a fish, because doing otherwise is not sustainable, so we have to look at something that is sustainable for these young people,” McIntosh explained.

A trained agriculturist, McIntosh said that he also plans to undertake a number of agricultural projects in the constituency, adding, too, that many jobs will be created soon in Sandy Bay with the opening of a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) plant.

Local political observer Christopher Hylton said the lack of infrastructure in Hanover Eastern is not unique to that constituency.

“Right across the island, especially in the rural constituencies, there are usually two main concerns by the residents: the lack of proper roads and water. And I believe both political parties have shown scant regard for the residents in these communities,” Hylton stressed.

He argued that the Hanover Eastern seat will be an “interesting one to watch” on Election Day.

“It’s a constituency that I know the PNP has serious concerns about. DK Duncan, who served for two terms, has not been able to do enough in terms of developing the constituency because of his health issues during his last term, and as a result of that he was not able to carry out of some of the things that are necessary to develop the constituency,” he argued.

He added that following Kerr-Jarrett’s resignation as caretaker for the constituency two years ago, Brown has been working in the seat, pointing out that McIntosh had only recently been installed as Duncan’s replacement.

Interestingly, in the 15 parliamentary elections contested in the constituency since 1944, the JLP has won eight, while the PNP has come out ahead in the remaining seven.