AFTER an unsuccessful bid to represent the People’s National Party (PNP) in Portland Eastern in 2020, Colin Bell has again thrown his hat into the ring and indications are that he could get the nod this time around.

In 2020 the PNP opted to run Bishop Purcell Jackson in the general election but he was trounced by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Ann-Marie Vaz.

This time around, former Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Owen Speid has also indicated an interest in contesting the seat but PNP sources say that Bell, who is popularly known as Shaka Fame, is poised for the nod.

“As former Party President Michael Manley said: ‘Listen to the masses of the people’, and the masses of the people are saying Colin Bell,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

According to Bell, if he is elected he will have the seat in the winning column for the PNP once the votes are counted.

“Since 2020 I have been the person on the ground carrying the PNP banner so it would not be a surprise if I am selected,” said Bell as he expressed confidence that he would be given the nod over Speid.

“I have never seen him [Speid] at a political meeting…whatever political meetings that I have been [to]; I have never seen him at one of those, and to my knowledge he was living in North Carolina teaching there and all of a sudden you hear his name start call. The people on the ground don’t know him.

“There is one place that I know where success comes before work and that is in the dictionary; and if you have been following my sojourn I have been doing the work, I have been organising the constituency, I have been out there being the voice of the constituency,” added Bell.

He pointed to the work that he has been doing in the constituency over the years as the main reason why he should get the job.

“When the children from Happy Grove [High School] weren’t getting home by midnight I was the person out there lobbying for them. When the dust was killing the people in Boston and Fairy Hill, I was out there. So, if people say I deserve the seat it is because of my work,” said Bell.

He told the Observer that recent internal polls have shown the PNP leading the JLP in the constituency, while he also leads Vaz as the person most respondents would vote for if an election was called now.

“Where the seat is now at, I am the person who brought it there because we are coming from a terrible defeat, losing by more than 2,000 votes in 2020. I have been the person out there taking the fight to the JLP, so the fact that the PNP and I are leading in the polls is testimony to the work that I have been doing on the ground.

“The people of east Portland are saying ‘Too much come yah; we need somebody from here’. The present people who are leading the parish are not from the parish; they don’t live in the parish. So it is about time that we keep our thing in the parish, and we say: ‘Portland for Portlanders,’ ” added Bell who is the PNP’s councillor/caretaker for the Fellowship Division.

“The people need somebody who they have a connection with, somebody who knows the issues, somebody who is presenting solutions, somebody who has lived in the parish who feels the pain of the people so they know that whatever happens, this person is there for them.”

Bell scoffed at claims that he does not have the high profile that the PNP is looking for to tackle Vaz in one of the constituencies which it sees as key to winning the next general election.

He also rejected the suggestion that he does not have the support of some of the heavy hitters in the constituency who have lined up behind Speid.

“The JLP is carrying that line because they want somebody else to run. A Colin Bell running, the JLP knows that the election is over — we are just waiting on the date,” said Bell.

He added that while some Comrades might favour another person to contest the seat, he is confident he will get their backing once the party selects him.

“In 2020 I applied for the seat and somebody [Jackson] who we had to show which street name West Street, which street is William Street — we had to take him around — was given the seat and we lost miserably.

“But I say that to say, when the PNP made a decision in 2020 that Comrade Purcell Jackson would run, I fell in line. And I say this without any fear of contradiction: Nobody in East Portland worked with him as hard as I did. Nobody in East Portland spent their own funds with him more than I did, so I am a team player and I expect that our Comrades would do the same.

“So, I am not worried about where they are now. I know that once the dust is settled, as Comrades we are going to work together to tackle the Labourities and set Jamaica free,” declared Bell.

He said he has been putting forward his vision to the people in the constituency and it has been resonating with them.

“We have been talking about how we are going to be creating the wealth for our people, and of course we have to look after their health as well. So, we have been talking about that, and that is why the PNP is leading and I am leading in the polls,” said Bell.

Last month, PNP sources had indicated that Speid would be the party’s next standard-bearer in the constituency. In recent days Speid, who had migrated to the United States with his family, has been on the ground drumming up support but the sources say he has been getting little traction and this could cause the party to stick with Bell.