WESTMORELAND, Jamaica —  With his mother by his side, candidate for the Little London Division in Western Westmoreland, Ian Myles said he got chills as he cast his vote for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) on Monday.

Up to last September, Myles had been a member of the People’s National Party (PNP). But,  as he tells it now, that was never a good fit.

“When I stepped out of the vehicle with my mother, who is a staunch Labourite from Hanover, and remembering my deceased grandma and remembering that they would have always wanted this —  for me to represent the Jamaica Labour Party —  that itself brings chills,” Myles told Observer Online as he hugged his mom Dorothy.

“Today, standing here with her, she’s excited for this moment. It is something that she would have wanted to see before her time, and it is now a reality. That brings a kind of joy. It’s an emotional moment,” he added.

His mother spoke of how much of a fighter he was growing up. She described him as someone she said would always get back up after being knocked down in a game of football.

She believes this trait has stayed with him into adulthood. She is thrilled that he has returned to the party that her family has supported for years and that he put his X beside the bell on Monday.

“I’m feeling good about it. That moment makes me feel happy,” Dorothy said, adding that she is confident her son will win.

Refusing to work with Member of Parliament aspirant for Westmoreland Western, Ian Hayles, Myles became an Independent candidate in July of last year, alongside two other councillors also elected on a PNP ticket. He and the Sheffield Division’s Garfield James subsequently joined the JLP but the Grange Hill Division’s Lawton McKenzie later returned to the PNP.

READ: Three PNP councillors in Westmoreland Western resign, refuse to work with Ian Hayles

McKenzie later became independent candidate after the PNP did not select him to represent the party in Monday’s poll.