“Lydia why are you going independent?”

“Because I was thrown out of the party. I don’t know why, but I have been here for 20 years, 15 of those years I have been on my own, and the party seems to think that I have [not] done enough good work, I imagine, and so they want to find somebody else. But if you’re finding somebody else, find somebody else who can manage. Find somebody else who the people respect. Find somebody else who when dem go to council [meeting] dem can represent… This is where my vote is, and I would go with anybody. It is not about me. I would go with anybody, but we needed to get somebody who can represent, somebody who the people can talk to, somebody who the people know can do something and will do something.” (CVM News, February 8, 2024)

Lydia Richards was elected councillor for the Bensonton Division on June 19, 2003. She was one of the three St Ann South Eastern (SESA) councillors who orchestrated the ousting of the former People’s National Party (PNP) Member of Parliament (MP) Aloun Assamba from the SESA constituency, not allowing her to finish her first term as an elected representative.

Notwithstanding, Councillor Richards and other councillors opposing my entry to the seat, I was elected as MP and three times since.

Now in my fourth term, I watched this new clip from Councillor Richards — who is now running as an independent candidate — on nomination day, in disbelief wondering if she is aware of what she was saying.

Why?

It was not the party that threw her out; it was the financial delegates of the PNP groups of her division who did.

I am still the elected chairman of the SESA constituency executive. On July 15, 2023 I was copied on a letter to the party’s general secretary from the Bensonton groups outlining their desire to remove her as the councillor of the division.

“…We, the undersigned members of the People’s National Party in the Bensonton Division, are concerned about the poor local government representation of the division and the failure to provide or maintain essential services — moreover, the collapse of the local political leadership to reflect our interest or meaningfully engage the voters… We declare that we have zero confidence in the current PNP standard-bearer and councillor, Comrade Lydia Richards… We are not prepared to continue with her and, as such, give notice that, as the financial group members of the PNP Bensonton Division, and following the party’s constitution, we proceed to set select a new standard-bearer to represent the Bensonton Division…”

One hundred and twenty-five of 142 Bensonton delegates, almost 90 per cent, signed the letter.

The people went ahead and chose the vice-chairman of the constituency executive and chairman of the Bensonton Division for over 10 years, Clovis “Junior” Gohagen, as their candidate, and the party — after considering all the evidence and speaking with Councillor Richards on several occasions — went ahead and ratified Junior’s candidacy.

As the sitting councillor, throughout her terms in office, she failed to attend divisional and constituency executive meetings since December 2013 or constituency conferences since 2014, despite being invited by me repeatedly to make representation on behalf of the people of her division and give reports on work taking place or work needed, as is required.

Therefore, the notion she purports that she has been on her own without support is of her own making — and delusional. But this is the Lydia I have come to know.

Over the years I have kept silent to keep the peace within the constituency and the party. As such, since 2013 I have listened and watched my name and character maligned and discredited throughout the PNP and publicly by Councillor Richards and other SESA councillors. They incited public demonstrations for the media to cover, participated in media interviews with propaganda, and wrote constant letters to the party’s leadership to have me removed as the MP.

Soon after my second term in office, Councillor Richards challenged me for the constituency in 2015. Many may not be aware, but at the PNP conference in September 2015, although I was the MP for SESA, I was not the confirmed candidate up to that point, and I had to sit at the back of the stage.

Soon after, a constituency delegates’ conference was held. I received 468 votes, while Councillor Richards received 10.

It was Councillor Richards who assisted in ensuring I was brought before the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) for awarding bushing contracts for nominal amounts of $30,000 to PNP activists for Christmas work. I was not found guilty of any wrongdoing.

Notwithstanding these events, I contested the general election for the PNP and won handsomely in February 2016. Lydia did not vote in that election, nor did some other councillors In the constituency. Worse, they tried to convince PNP voters to stay home.

Later that year, she vowed to continue her fight to remove me from the seat. One headline read: ‘Fight to the end… PNP councillor vows to have Hanna removed as party standard-bearer’. (
The Gleaner, December 1, 2016)

Fast-forward eight years, and the irony is that Councillor Richards feels abandoned by the PNP — and I empathise with her — because, over the years, it was some in the PNP’s hierarchy, then and now, who have fortified her abuse and undermining of me as an MP.

Now, she is expelled from the party she served because, finally, the party went with what the people in Bensonton truly wanted, and she got upset and decided to run independently.

I’ve learned in life that time is the great equaliser and, often, it is patience, not a fight, that allows others to see what you’ve been trying to explain or prevail upon. The fact that I allowed Councillor Richards’ voice and actions to take precedence over mine was not an accident. Because, as sure as night follows day, when you give people enough rope to hang themselves, in time they will.

As the sitting MP for SESA, I wish Lydia well in her life outside of politics as we all continue to support the PNP in SESA.