Election boycott in St Mary
While representatives of the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are fine tuning their machinery to face the polls within days, some residents who live in St Mary South Eastern are warning them that come election day over 300 of them will boycott the election.
The people said that they were angry and frustrated about how political representatives from both the JLP and PNP have treated them.
The irate group said that as a result they have one message for vote seekers who will be looking to their communities for support come election day:
“We will be boycotting the election. We will not be giving any of the political parties our votes,” said Damion White, a resident of Chesterfield.
Chesterfield is where scores of residents told the Jamaica Observer last year that they were forced to swim across a river daily in order to enter or leave their community.
The story was highlighted as a Jamaica Observer exclusive.
The residents claim that for years they have been calling on authorities to install a bridge to address their concern but the calls have gone unanswered.
They claim that roads in the community are in a deplorable condition and in order to get from one area to the next, residents have to travel on dirt tracks.
“We have lost all trust in political representatives and as a result me know me not voting,” said a woman who identified herself as Sandra.
The sentiments expressed by the angry residents were shared by Derrick Edwards, President of the Chesterfield/Castleton Citizens Association, which has close to 250 members.
“What the residents are saying and the views they expressed is something spread right across the board,” said Edwards, who spoke on behalf of the group.
“For years we calling for help. Imagine in 2016 people in the parish have to be living under such conditions and despite calls for help we continue to be ignored,” Edwards told the Sunday Observer.
Dental surgeon Dr Winston Green is the incumbent PNP representative. His JLP challenger is pharmacist Dr Norman Dunn.
