JUNCTION, St Elizabeth — Former Member of Parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth South Eastern Len Blake is calling on the People’s National Party (PNP) hierarchy to move quickly in selecting a standard-bearer for the constituency.

“The PNP needs to be aware that you can’t wait until the last year [before election] to put your candidate in place, it makes no sense,” he said at the Opposition party’s constituency conference at BB Cooke High School in Junction last Sunday.

“I am now saying to the leadership of the People’s National Party, our party, that the time is now to start organising to put a candidate in South Eastern St Elizabeth,” he added.

St Elizabeth South Eastern is currently represented in Parliament by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party’s Frank Witter. He is now in his second consecutive term, having won the seat in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.

Parliamentary elections are not constitutionally due until 2025, but in Jamaica’s political system the prime minister has the authority to send Jamaicans to the polls (with due notice) at any time before that.

However, it’s widely expected that local government elections, which are overdue, will be called before the next parliamentary poll.

Blake, who served as a lead political organiser for many years in support of the late, legendary PNP parliamentarian Derrick Rochester, won the October 16, 2002 General Election, polling 7,507 votes to defeat Witter, his cousin, by 82 votes.

In the September 3, 2007 General Election, Witter won the seat when he polled 9,064 votes, defeating the PNP’s candidate Norman Horne by 544 votes.

The PNP regained the constituency at the December 29, 2011 General Election, with Richard Parchment polling 9,902 votes to beat Witter by 970 votes.

In the February 25, 2016 election Witter polled 9,223, defeating Parchment by 205 votes. In the September 3, 2020 election, Witter polled 9,038 votes to defeat the PNP’s Dr Dwaine Spencer by 2,702 votes.

Blake told PNP supporters in Junction that organisation is important for the party to regain St Elizabeth South Eastern.

“We have to battle because wi must win again; it is not beyond us… The organisation is built from the groups and the political education is at the group level, and you go into the districts to have your group meetings every month, you realise how many people you would have made contact with, and if you continue that you will have a good organisation,” he said.

Blake said the constituency chairman, Councillor Layton Smith (Myersville Division), has not expressed any interest in the seat.

“[He] explained that he is a chairman for the constituency, not the candidate, and him never tell you seh him have any interest either. He did not say that, so, therefore, the leader of the party and the leadership, I beg of you, put a candidate in place,” said Blake.

“… Not necessarily in South East St Elizabeth alone, because there are a whole heap of constituencies across Jamaica that need candidates now, if we have any hope of winning the next election,” he added.

Businessman Mervin “Bobby” Myers, who recently returned to Jamaica from overseas, confirmed at the meeting that he has a strong interest in contesting the seat for the PNP.

“When I look at where we were and where we are now I decided to come out of my comfort zone in the United States, because this is my home. Everything I own is in Jamaica, and when I see that there is no one else, because I know we can win it if we just unite, if we do not unite we are not going anywhere,” Myers told PNP supporters.

He claimed the PNP built St Elizabeth South Eastern.

“All the roads in Bull Savannah and surrounding areas were built by the late Derrick Rochester, carried on by Len Blake and Richard Parchment,” he said.

“Comrades, put away your differences because at the end of the day a you a suffer… We have too much Esau in the PNP, dem sell out dem birthright for one bowl of soup and after that hungry kill yuh. It is not going to work. Let us get back together and put back the PNP in power,” he added.