WITH its bastion of St Ann South Eastern rocking at the foundation, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is searching for a candidate who will excite the electorate in the constituency, and political newcomer Dr Kenneth Russell is confident that he is the man for the job.

Already two people who tasted defeat in the 2020 General Election — Patricia Duncan Sutherland (Clarendon South Eastern) and Wavell Hinds (Hanover Eastern) — have applied to replace Lisa Hanna in the seat which the PNP has never lost, but local man Russell says neither should be a real challenge to him.

“I am the only one who can say I am from this constituency. They [the constituents] want one of their own who has lived through the issues of the constituency to represent them,” Russell told the Jamaica Observer.

“That is an advantage for me and I come to the table having worked with Government on the issues that are most pressing to the constituency — whether it is community development, youth development, education, that is the work I have done and people appreciate that.

“But most importantly, the people want a politics that is focused on their development, and those are the things that I bring to the table. They know that I am a winner. Every time that I have had a chance to take on something I win, and they know that I am going to be working non-stop for them,” added Russell.

According to Russell, he brings to politics a new perspective, and that is what the people in St Ann South Eastern want.

“St Ann South Eastern is my home. I was born there, went to school — Bensonton Primary and Ferncourt High schools — so I know this constituency. I know the culture, I know the people, and I know that the kind of politics that I practise — which is participatory, which is collaborative, and one which is respectful of people — is what they want,” said Russell as he declared that he is focused on serving the people and staying above some of the issues which sometimes get in the way of providing service.

Hanna won the seat by almost 4,000 votes each time in the three general elections between 2007 and 2016, before squeezing home by just 31 votes in 2020, and Russell has charged that there was disengagement by the people going into that election.

He argued that he is the only one of the three people who have indicated an interest in the seat who can lead the PNP to dominance in the constituency again.

“I think I am the only one in this race who has the energy of young people, who has the energy of the communities because they know me, they know my family and they think that my style, my approach, the type of politics that I practise, the fact that I am local, are the things that will energise and give us the dominance which we once had in this constituency,” Russell told the Observer.

“Good politics is transformative for individuals, for communities and for our country more broadly, and that is what I am about. I am at a stage in my life where I have seen and done and have achieved other things, and I have also been the beneficiary of not just good politics but of others who have given good service, and that is what I want to do,” said Russell, who has a doctorate in education.

He told the Observer that he first acquired official direct membership in the PNP in 2007 but was working on the ground for the party for several years before then.

“My PNP roots are long and deep, and while I might not have been in the public eye on some of these things, I have been working,” he said, declaring that he is very confident of getting the nod of the delegates in the constituency.

Russell, who is married with two children, is a Roman Catholic and farms ginger, aloe vera and other produce. He acquired his doctorate in education from Harvard University in the United States after leaving Howard University where he earned a first degree in communication.

He has worked with the United Nations office in Jamaica, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries specifically on primary education.

To get the nod to represent the PNP in the seat he will need to get by Duncan Sutherland, who has already indicated that the reception she has received has been really good in the constituency which is in the parish where her father, the late DK Duncan, was born.

At the same time, Hinds, a former West Indies opening batsman, said he was urged to represent the constituency where he has grandparents, aunts and uncles who lived in Walker’s Wood and other districts.