MONTEGO BAY, St James —

Economic development and social agenda top the list of priorities on the agendas of the western region’s first-time members of parliament.

Members of Parliament-elect Heroy Clarke, St James Central; Victor Wright, Trelawny Northern; Marlene Malahoo Forte, St James West Central, and Dave Brown, Hanover Eastern were the four newcomers to representational politics at the constituency level in the western parishes of Trelawny, St James, Hanover and Westmoreland when the ballots were tallied in last Thursday’s general election.

Both the Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) won six each of the 12 parliamentary seats up for grabs in the region.

On the national level, the JLP won 32 of the 63 contested parliamentary seats contested.

Malahoo Forte, who defeated the PNP’s Sharon Ffolkes Abrahams by a majority of 1,279 votes, has promised to provide sterling representation to her constituents during her tenure.

“Rest assured, I am going to be working overtime for all of you,” Malahoo Forte told hundreds of party supporters gathered outside her constituency office in Catherine Hall on Thursday night, after it was announced that she had wrest the seat from Ffolkes Abrahams.

Stressing that the constituency has been lacking proper representation for several years, the MP-elect, who lost the Westmoreland Central seat to the late PNP stalwart, Roger Clarke, in the 2011 General Election, said she will be meeting in coming weeks with her constituents to identify projects that can be undertaken in a short period of time.

She added that some residents have already identified poor road conditions in areas such as Guava Walk; lack of piped water and unemployment, as some of the issues that need to be addressed.

In the neighbouring constituency of St James Central, where Clarke defeated the PNP’s Ashley-Ann Foster by over 2,000 votes, the MP-elect is promising to provide running water to a number of communities, including Flower Hill.

“One of the first things I plan to do is to get water into Flower Hill, that is needed more than anything at this time, and we think we have the know-how to get water there,” Clarke told the

JamaicaObserver West.

Flower Hill residents have been suffering for many years from a lack of the resource and have staged several demonstrations to press home their case.

Clarke also plans to give priority attention during his tenure to early childhood education; establishing a revolving loan fund for young entrepreneurs; skills training; and other basic social needs, such as electricity and roads.

And Wright, who beat the JLP’s Dennis Meadows in Trelawny Northern, has disclosed plans geared towards improving educational and the farming sector in the constituency.

“First and foremost, I campaigned on a platform of education and agriculture as I believe that if we educate the youths and provide them with opportunities, we can start building the future of having an educated and accomplished constituency. Part of my plans is that I am going to be meeting with all the board chairmen in the constituency to find out what is the vision for the schools, and try to tie it in to both the vision of the new government and my vision, to ensure that we have proper infrastructure, proper facilities and resources for the children in the constituency,” he explained.

“As an agronomist I think we can do better with what we have now if we apply more of what we know and do some of the simple things right. For that, I will be partnering with RADA (Rural Agricultural Development Authority), and the JAS (Jamaica Agricultural Society), to really see what it is that our farmers are doing right, and build on it.”

Wright eked out a narrow victory over Meadows, defeating him by just under 500 votes.

It was the third consecutive defeat for Meadows in the constituency, having lost to Dr Patrick Harris in 2007, then to Patrick Atkinson in 2011, by over 2,300 votes.

In Hanover Eastern, Brown, a first-time contender for the seat polled 6,388 votes, while the PNP’s Wnyter McIntosh, who is also Mayor of Lucea, got 6,023 votes, according to the preliminary count.

With last Thursday’s mandate from the constituents, and having listened to their concerns, Brown said that he will be moving post-haste to address some of the issues impacting negatively on the constituency.

“The lack of piped water and the poor road conditions in the constituency are at the top of my list of things I want to start working on,” said Brown, a former member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and a successful Montego Bay businessman.