The September 3 General Election victory by Pearnel Charles Jr over Patricia Duncan Sutherland in the constituency of Clarendon South Eastern marked the first time in 46 years that any candidate has gained over 10,000 votes in the seat.

It came at a time when political observers had predicted a low turnout in the seat, what with COVID-19 concerns, apathy, rainy weather in the forecast, and the makings of a contest that promised to be keenly contested.

Charles Jr’s 10, 249 votes to his opponent’s 7,259 in the preliminary count, a victory margin of 2,990, also marked the second heaviest defeat inflicted on a candidate in the seat. Only the victory secured by former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) over the People’s National Party’s (PNP) V Churchill Henry in the bloody 1980 General Election bettered Charles Jr’s massive victory margin on September 3.

In the October 30, 1980 election, Shearer secured 9,718 votes to Henry’s 3,178, winning the contest by a whopping 6,540 majority.

In a queer occurrence, Charles Jr, who was on Friday named as Minister of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change —the only super ministry in the Andrew Holness-led Executive, his second time in the Holness Cabinet, secured the second most votes overall, finishing runner-up to Everald Warmington, who retained the St Catherine South Western seat with 11,185 votes over Dr Kurt Waul of the PNP who had 6,084 votes.

All of this comes at a time when Jamaica also recorded its lowest voter turnout at general election – 37 per cent.

Journalist and trade unionist Shearer had first won the Clarendon South Eastern seat when it was created in 1976, beating Verdel Powell of the PNP handsomely. The elder statesman, now deceased, got 6,842 people to vote for him, while Powell could attract only 4,708.

Shearer triumphed again in 1989, by which time the writing was on the wall that a change was coming. Then, he came into the winners’ enclosure by a mere four votes, beating Emanuel Cousins by the whisker. The statistics showed that 7,299 voters backed Shearer, and 7,295 went for Cousins, the grandfather of new candidate for Clarendon South Western, Lothan Cousins, president of Clarendon-based football outfit, Vere United.

That close shave by Shearer ended in disgrace for him five years later. After leading Jamaica as prime minister from 1967 to 1972, and as deputy prime minister from 1980 to 1989, Shearer was humbled by new boy on the block, one Peter Bunting, who defeated the long-standing MP by 1,443 votes ­– the victor getting 6,658 votes, and Shearer ending up with 5,215.

The PNP had one other victory in its column, which came in 1997 when Basil Burrell scored a narrow 54-vote win over Edwin Singh of the JLP, Burrell racking up 7,296 votes, and Singh, 7,242.

It has been all JLP since then. Now retired MP and former Cabinet minister Rudyard “Ruddy” Spencer came home ahead of Burrell in the 2002 General Election (7,997 to 7,400), and kept on winning in 2007 over Scean Barnswell, 9,421 to 7,153; Dereck Lambert (8,843 to 8,736) in the 2011 General Election; and Duncan Sutherland by time the 2016 General Election was held. On the latter occasion, Spencer got 9,997 votes and Duncan Sutherland, 9,039.

Spencer demitted office in February of this year, thereby forcing the calling of a by-election on March 2. It was then the start of the Pearnel Charles Jr show. He profited from a decision by the PNP not to contest the by-election, and ran away a comfortable winner against his only challenger –Lambert – who by this time had switched to become an independent, and earned the wrath of his former party for stepping forward.

Charles Jr got off to an explosive start, slamming Lambert into submission by polling 6,846 votes, trailed by a panting Lambert who ended with 741, thought to be mainly PNP supporters upset that the party did not field an official candidate.

Within six months, the numbers swelled, as Charles went over the historic 10,000-mark, while Duncan Sutherland’s figures from 2016 fell dramatically.

What could have caused that?

“The work done in the constituency was the main reason for that,” Charles Jr told the Jamaica Observer. “It is also significant that our numbers went up during the height of a pandemic with a lower turnout nationally. We were able to connect, communicate and engage the people in the by-election, something which continued into the general election. People believed in the message that was being conveyed.

“Prime Minister Holness also added significant value of support with the message that this party was better able to manage the affairs of the country than the PNP. It contrasted with the message coming from the opponent who was saying, ‘I am the real deal. I stayed here for six years.’ Neither could she point to anything that she had done for the people in the area during the time she served as caretaker,” Charles Jr said.

The turning on of a stand pipe in Salt River for the first time since Independence in 1962, marked the initial project that would see the community, known for its strong support of the PNP over the years, get piped water in short order.

“It was more about action and results. Young people don’t have time to wait on promises. They bought into the vision. Some came up to me and said, ‘Mr Charles, I am PNP but I am not going to vote for the party’. Others put on orange shirts and voted JLP, at a time when a lot of money was being spent to prevent people from voting for me.

“There was unity of purpose in the seat. People wanted you to produce for them. We worked on the Rasta Corner water system, Portland Cottage and Rocky Point saw improvements in their water supply, the Palmer’s Cross road was improved… and these were just some of the things that were achieved in a short time. The people want to believe,” Charles said.

Charles Jr also praised the many people who supported the campaign, and worked hard to ensure that his name was in the winning column. Among them are Prime Minister Andrew Holness, former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who is married to his aunt Lorna; retired MP Spencer, Kingston Mayor Delroy Williams, the Creary brothers—Don and Richard from St Mary; Michael Stern, his councillors and councillor caretaker — whom he described as exceptional, and others who did not want their names to be mentioned.

The broadest margin of victory in the September 3 election was 7,598 recorded by MP for Kingston Western Desmond McKenzie over Joseph “Bunny” Witter of the PNP. McKenzie polled 8,480 votes. Witter got 882. McKenzie’s triumph edged the victory by Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange into second place, after she thumped the PNP’s Maurice Westney by 7,286 votes in St Catherine Central.

On the other side, the PNP’s Mark Golding of St Andrew Southern scored the widest victory by an Opposition candidate – a whopping 6,787 margin over regular beating stick Victor Hyde, with Golding’s neighbour in St Andrew Southern West Angela Brown Burke dismissing Maureen Lorne by a margin of 6,407 votes.