MONTEGO BAY, St James — Scores of delegates from across the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Region Six, which encompasses 10 constituencies in the parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover and St James, will meet at the Manning’s School in Westmoreland today to select a new chairman for the region during the party’s annual regional conference.

Earlier this year, Member of Parliament for Hanover Western Ian Hayles, who has held the post since 2015, indicated to the party that he would not be seeking re-election.

Hayles later confirmed in an interview with the Jamaica Observer that he would be relinquishing the post, citing the need to focus on his constituency and his business.

The three-term MP is expected to be replaced by PNP stalwart Donald Colomathi, who has been the vice-president for the region for close to 10 years.

On Friday Colomathi, who was the councillor for the Spring Mount Division of the St James Parish Council — now St James Municipal Corporation — for 21 years, and who unsuccessfully contested the St James East Central constitiuency on two occasions, confirmed that he would be offereing himself for the post.

“I am making myself available. I have been carrying out most of the organisational work over time, and now that there is a vacancy, I will certainly be offering myself,” said Colomathi, who has been in charge of organisation under Hayles’ leadership.

“I certainly want to rebuild, reorganise, repackage, and renew the region. I think I have a good relationship and understanding of how to do that based on my experience,” adeded Colomathi, nothing that he has also served as a vice-chairman for Region Six under the leadership of former PNP Vice-President Derrick Kellier, former Cabinet minister Dr DK Duncan as well as PNP Vice-President Dr Wykeham McNeill.

Colomathi stressed that if elected, he would be moving to prepare the party for governance.

“The first objective of a political party is to get itself ready for governance, so I will be working to get the region ready for elections — local government or general election, whichever comes first, so I will be getting the region up and running in an effort to see how best we can reclaim what we have lost,” he explained.

Under Hayles’ watch, Region Six has lost ground to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

In the February 25, 2016 General Election, the then ruling PNP lost three of the eight seats it had held in the region since the 2011 national polls, two of which were lost in the parish of St James — St James West Central and St James Central — and the other being Hanover Eastern.

And in the local government election that followed later that year, the PNP also lost five of the 14 parish council divisions in Westmoreland, 13 in St James and two in Hanover that it had held prior to the polls.

Speaking at a party Regional Executive Council meeting in St James three months after the general election, Kellier, a veteran politician who is serving his seventh consecutive term as Member of Parliament for St James Southern, warned delegates that the task of regaining ground lost to the JLP will be Herculean.

“Our political machinery has broken down badly and that’s why we are where we are today… we will have to climb Mount Everest to get back to where we were,” Kellier told the delegates.

“Going forward is not going to be easy… we are in a state of flux, we are all about power, personal power, and personal aggrandisement and one-upmanship. That is what we are about. We are no longer a cohesive force that can deliver the knockout punch to the opposition and can spread the word of hope and progress to the people,” said Kellier, who served as PNP vice-president for 10 years.

He also argued then that Region Six delegates are in need of a “refresher” as he urged them not to take the ruling JLP lightly.

“We have to be baptised again. We need a refresher so that we can ‘wheel and come again’ in the true sense, because you should not take this [Jamaica] Labour Party in power lightly. If you take them lightly, you are making a very serious mistake,” he stressed.

Colomathi acknowledged that the task of getting Region Six’s “political machinery up and ready” might not be easy, but stressed that he would be moving to get greater participation from the public in the political process.

“Too few persons are participating in the election process. I want to rebuild some confidence in the election process, so I am going to use whatever means necessary to get people back to appreciate the role of the political organisation,” said Colomathi.