Angela Brown Burke’s victory in constituency elections to replace Portia Simpson Miller in St Andrew South Western will be tempered by news that the area is home to 48 gangs, the bulk of the Jamaican gangs which police blame for the majority of murders in the island.

The St Andrew South Western gangs were named among 190 operating across 12 parishes, in a lengthy but moving prayer for the nation by Tarrant Baptist Church pastor, Rev Jeffrey Shuttleworth on affiliate TBC Radio which broadcasts out of 51 Molynes Road, Kingston.

After two weeks of bitter campaigning, yesterday ended with jubiliation for Brown Burke’s camp and despair for Audrey Smith Facey. Brown Burke, a People’s National Party (PNP) vice-president, emerged the favourite of the 1,105 delegates who cast ballots, securing 595 votes to Audrey Smith Facey’s 502 votes. There were eight spoilt ballots. A total of 1,894 delegates were eligible to vote.

Electoral voting history suggests that Brown Burke will become the Member of Parliament for St Andrew South Western whenever by-elections are called in the PNP’s safest constituency.

“The first thing I have to do when everything settles is to make sure I have a discussion with the entire political organisation — those in Payne Land, those in Whitfield Town, and those in Greenwich Town. And part of the discussion I want to have with them is the role we have to play that it is one People’s National Party, and at the end of the day we have a common enemy and a common goal,” Brown Burke told the Jamaica Observer post-victory at Caribbean Palms Community Centre, Spanish Town Road in Kingston, where voting took place.

Labelled an “undeserving outsider”, the councillor for the Norman Gardens Division in the Kingston Eastern constituency singled out the Payne Land Division, held by Smith Facey, as the division she will have to work the hardest in.

Her challenge, backed by the former Member of Parliament and party President Simpson Miller, of the long-time councillor drew condemnation from those who felt the garrison belonged to one of their own.

“Audrey is a good woman in the society. She don’t deserve what Portia, do to her. Is Portia give we her, and we love Portia so we haffi love she,” a woman, who had just voted, told the Observer.

Those comments reflected ones previously echoed by some in the party determined to witness a “renewal” of the 78-year-old movement. But the upset that should have been created by a Smith Facey victory, and which some say would have strengthened “Team Renewal,” was all but absent.

Amidst heightened anxiety, chants of “We say Angela” dominated much of the day’s proceedings, with supporters of the former mayor of Kingston decked in yellow prancing about the ever-busy Spanish Town Road.

That crowd multiplied when Simpson Miller arrived to cast her ballot in the constituency she served for 40 years.

“Anything Portia say a dat we say! Anything Portia say a dat we say!” supporters chanted as the political stalwart made her way to the voting centre.

The veteran politician who retired from representational politics last month had, unusually, spent hours campaigning in her stronghold, urging delegates to continue her “legacy” by supporting Brown Burke.

In the meantime, PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson said voting, which began at 10:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm, went according to plan.

“The day went well. There were a couple of issues with the spelling of names and a couple of people who were not on the list. We went through an appeals process and the appeals panel made a determination as to whether they would allow them to vote or not,” he told the Observer, adding that “everything was done in a transparent manner”.

Smith Facey declined to speak with the Observer.