Sporting a green T-shirt last Thursday, the father of reggae, dancehall artiste Sizzla Kalonji warmly embraced Councillor Venesha Phillips, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for the Papine Division in St Andrew, following her nomination.

“Daddy Sizzla”, as he is called, hugged Phillips at a football field in Tavern on Thursday afternoon, showing support for the firebrand politician who last November left the People’s National Party (PNP) after an acrimonious relationship with PNP President Mark Golding.

Phillips told the
Jamaica Observer that when she was in the PNP, Daddy Sizzla was right there with her. She made the point that Daddy Sizzla and other people in the division switching from the PNP to join her in the JLP demonstrates the strong backing she has in the division.

“When I was on the other side he had on the orange shirt,” Phillips said. Orange is colour used by the PNP, while the JLP’s is green.

“He was with me before and he is not leaving,” Phillips told the
Observer before she introduced another one of her supporters, “Comrade Fitzroy”, who was affiliated with the PNP but made the switch with her in November last year.

“She is the councillor for the Papine Division and it is going to remain that way. On February 26 we are going to give Darrington a political backsiding,” Fitzroy said in reference to the PNP’s candidate Darrington Ferguson.

However, Ferguson told the
Observer that it is Phillips who will be on the receiving end of the backsiding that will be delivered on election day.

“I am 100 per cent confident that PNP will retain the division. The feeling is good, very, very positive. When it comes to politics trust is always a factor…Once your integrity becomes questionable, then you become beatable,” Ferguson said.

Two Sundays ago, at a PNP meeting in his St Andrew Southern constituency Golding, while introducing Ferguson, had labelled Phillips a traitor.

“For the Papine Division, I bring to you a man who is going to show Venesha Phillips, a traitor, that you don’t survive and success cannot be yours. I bring to you, Comrade Darrington Ferguson,” he said.

Responding to the comment Phillips, in a radio interview, said, “I am giggling because I listened to a clip and I heard an incoherent message from the leader of the Opposition. It is pitiful that at this time, going into local government elections, Mr Golding has no message for Jamaica. Mr Golding is in no position to call anyone a traitor when he introduced treachery to the People’s National Party,” Phillips said.

While she did not elaborate her reference was to Golding’s support of Peter Bunting who, in 2019, mounted an unsuccessful challenge to then PNP President Dr Peter Phillips.

Since then, Venesha Phillips, who was one of Dr Phillips’ strongest supporters, have not see eye-to-eye with Golding and other individuals in that faction of the party that used the slogan ‘Rise United’.

Venesha Phillips was elected councillor in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016.