WALDERSTON, Manchester — Political observers are paying close attention to Audley Shaw’s Manchester North Eastern constituency following the results in last Monday’s local government elections.

Against prior expectations, People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Oneil Evans defeated Desmond Harrison of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) by 276 votes to take the Christiana Division.

In Walderston the PNP’s David Knight defeated the JLP’s Leroy “Lizzy” Mitchell by 186 votes. However, the JLP’s Omar Miller held on to the Craighead Division, defeating the PNP’s Richard Guscott by 524 votes.

The constituency, which has been held by Shaw for three decades, is being watched with growing speculation as to whether he will contest the next parliamentary election.

When asked by the Jamaica Observer during the local government elections campaign on February 16 if he would be contesting the general election Shaw, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) since 1993, smiled and said, “Yes, as of now, definitely.”

However, efforts by the Sunday Observer to get a response from Shaw after last Monday’s elections were unsuccessful as several calls and messages to his phone went unanswered.

Mitchell told the Sunday Observer that he believes the JLP lost Christiana and Walderston due to campaign financing issues.

“I just take it civilly and say the people have spoken, and I can’t complain. I have an idea what took place. The forces that came upon us financially, I realise that was one of the big problems,” he said last Wednesday.

However, he expressed confidence that the JLP still has traction in the constituency.

“We will regroup and come again because we have the popularity there and we have the votes. The Labourites didn’t come out and vote,” he said while claiming that losing the divisions hasn’t weakened the JLP’s base.

“No, that will never hit the core because we have the votes outside. We did the tally and saw that we have the votes up here,” he said.

Mitchell was greeted by the PNP’s Evans, councillor-elect for the Christiana Division, outside the Christiana courthouse on Wednesday, in an obvious show of friendship.

Evans, whose campaign started in 2019, believes he won the division due to what he said was “neglect” of the area.

“… The people wanted a change. I must say that not only PNP [supporters] voted; a lot of undecided, and a lot of persons from the JLP voted for change — and that is what I promised to deliver,” he said.

“I honestly thought I was going to run against somebody younger but it just goes to show you that the JLP has no succession plan. It is a shame that I had to run against somebody who had been a councillor since I was 11 years old, and as you can see the people showed that they weren’t with that either,” he said in reference to the JLP’s Harrison.

Knight, the councillor-elect for the Walderston Division, shared similar sentiments.

“It is really a nice feeling to know that we have won this seat for the PNP. The people across the division wanted a change, and when I stepped in to offer myself to represent them they had agreed to work with me. We worked together and, as a result of that, we got the results,” he said.

“The division was not being represented properly. When I walked across the division I was told that they have been neglected by their representative so the roads are bad, there is no running water,” added Knight.

He believes the PNP representative, Valenton “Val” Wint, can win the general election based on the momentum the party has gained in Manchester North Eastern.

“We have to start from the local level — and this is where we are touching base with our people — then we will automatically move now to allow Mr Valenton Wint to become the next MP for North East Manchester,” said Knight.

Wint has thrice contested parliamentary elections on behalf of the PNP. He lost each time. He was defeated by Shaw in Manchester North Eastern in 2011 and 2016, and by the JLP’s Zavia Mayne in St Ann South Western in 2020.

Wint told the
Sunday Observer that he is prepared to face Shaw a third time, or another candidate.

“It is the prerogative of the JLP and Mr Shaw that will determine who goes. We are ready for anyone to come,” he said.