HE considers himself as having a “good chance” of creating an upset win in tomorrow’s by-election in Clarendon South Eastern.

But independent candidate Dereck Lambert is still smarting from the way that he has been treated by the political organisation that he and his family have supported for over 50 years — the People’s National Party (PNP).

Lambert, who turned 70 on October 23 last year, is up against howling favourite, Pearnel Charles Jr of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation from the House of Representatives of Rudyard “Ruddy” Spencer, who defeated him by 107 votes in the 2011 General Election, the only other time that he (Lambert) had sought to warm a seat in Gordon House, Jamaica’s Parliament building.

Before that election, he was replaced by Scean Barnswell who contested the seat in 2007. Then, for the February 2016 poll the PNP chose Patricia Duncan Sutherland over Lambert to contest the seat.

Now, the retired trade unionist of the National Workers’ Union is extremely turned off by the attitude demonstrated toward him by the party that he has been faithful to for decades.

“My campaign is coming on okay in terms of the challenges and I am confident of the people always,” Lambert said in response to the question of his readiness in the fight against a bright light of the JLP.

“We have glitches and we can tell you the major one was when I started I thought the JLP and myself were the only ones in the game, only to understand that there was a third party — the Duncan family franchise of the PNP — because they were on the road obstructing my campaign, telling people not to vote for me,” he alleged.

Repeated attempts to get a response from Duncan Sutherland have not been successful.

He said that in the election of 2011, he paid the price for supporting Dr Peter Phillips in the bruising PNP presidential contests that involved Dr Phillips, against Portia Simpson Miller, Dr Omar Davies and Dr E Karl Blythe in 2006. He again supported Dr Phillips in the leadership tussle with Simpson Miller in 2008. Dr Phillips is now president of the PNP and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.

“I was the caretaker for the constituency just before the 2007 election, but the Peter vs Portia thing got me out. I supported Peter and immediately I was removed as the caretaker and so Barnswell came into the picture. But I am not daunted by all of that, because it’s not about the PNP, it’s about the working class. As a trade unionist, that’s my religion … always fighting for the people,” he said.

But with Barnswell out of the picture by the next general election in 2011, Lambert, popularly known as “Yatta”, was given the chance to go up against Spencer, who was contesting his third general election in the seat.

In the end, Lambert polled 8,736 votes, 107 short of Spencer’s 8,843.

To this day, he believes that had he been given more campaign support by the PNP, in terms of money and material, he would have easily beaten Spencer.

“The PNP never gave me any support. They used me to keep Ruddy in the constituency because they knew my strategic thinking and they knew that I am good at setting up tactical operations,” Lambert said.

“Even though I knew that the party was using me, I calculated that with some money support, which a lot of people promised me and it didn’t come, I could have won easily. That is really how I lost, apart from other acts of treachery, within and without the party. I only got three months to prepare for the election and came so close, when I had applied to contest the seat over a year before.

“Even on election day, I was set to win and should have got a last push on the day, but I didn’t get the money that I was promised on the day to do the things that were necessary. That’s also one of the main reasons I stepped aside,” Lambert said.

Has he been expelled from the PNP because of his decision to run as an independent? “Not that I know of,” he responded to the Jamaica Observer.

Is he still a member of the PNP?

“With due respect, you have to put that question to the PNP,” he insisted.

He said he has received reports that money was being handed out by some people to encourage constituents not to vote for him. “This is not about Dereck Lambert, this is about certain sections of the ruling class coalescing in a bid to prevent our development and we will not allow it. We have to stand up,” Lambert told the Sunday Observer.

As for his opponent, Charles Jr, Lambert has a fondness for him but sees the contest as a serious matter and as such there is no room for sentimentality.

“I met Pearnel Charles Jr a few days ago,” the likeable Lambert revealed. “When I met him he was trembling. I went up to him and said, ‘Son of the wily political fox, Pearnel Charles Sr, welcome. This is Yatta.’

“But I see seh the youth nuh really ready fi it yet. We sat, and I lectured him to think about the future; not right now, because I have to set up the place first. There is no animosity between us,” Lambert suggested.

He said that the violence that erupted between supporters of the JLP and PNP last week, which attracted the attention of the political ombudsman, started when “a certain individual tried to use the PNP people, and ran into Labourites and started a fracas. It had nothing to do with me. They are my people, all of us grew up in Clarendon. They know I always lead a different kind of struggle, whether as a trade unionist or being at the political front”, Lambert stated.

Unlike the fanfare that existed during the ground tours by Lambert’s opponent, Charles Jr, there was little to shout about when the Sunday Observer visited Lambert at his home on the outskirts of Clarendon’s main town, May Pen, last week.

Scores of supporters passed through the dwelling house and its agriculturally flavoured yard, even as Lambert complained about a stomach bug, but he remained firm that he would be the preferred choice tomorrow, something that Charles’ supporters crushed with emotive energy when the suggestion was put to them.