CHRISTIANA, Manchester — The battle to replace political heavyweight Audley Shaw in Manchester North Eastern has started to escalate, with Calvin Lyn, the funeral director who once held the seat for the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), stating on Wednesday that he has come out of political retirement to campaign for his party’s candidate, Valenton Wint.

According to Lyn, the current political dynamics in the constituency have given the PNP its best chance to retake the seat from the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) since 1993 when Shaw first won it and has convincingly whipped all opponents since.

Last weekend, Shaw confirmed that he is leaving representational politics and endorsed Councillor Omar Miller (JLP, Craighead Division) as his successor to contest the next parliamentary election, constitutionally due next September. However, another JLP aspirant, educator Hidran McKulsky, who has indicated an interest in contesting the seat for the Labour party, said he is “not deterred” by Shaw endorsing Miller.

The brewing rivalry has triggered concern in the JLP, while the PNP is licking its lips at the possibility of a division within the JLP demoralising supporters.

However, Lyn, who had beaten Shaw in the 1989 General Election by 189 votes, believes that even if the interest in the seat shown by both Labourites does not develop into a bitter feud, the PNP now has an opportunity to take the constituency.

“Division or no division in their camp, I believe with hard work, similar to what I did in 1983 to 1989, the PNP can win. The PNP has a good message for the country. I have come out of political retirement to help campaign to get this corrupt Government out of power,” Lyn told the Jamaica Observer.

He said the rivalry in the JLP camp can play in the PNP’s favour, similar to what happened in the PNP at the end of his tenure as Member of Parliament (MP).

“No disunity anywhere at all is beneficial to you while it is in your camp. It is disunity why I gave up in 1993…” Lyn said, while admitting that since then, PNP supporters and delegates have called for his return.

“I have left a legacy there. People call me ‘the PNP man’. I am not boasting, my record is there. When I gave it up, from that time people would come to me and say ‘Mr Lyn, come back, we want you even at age 84, two years ago,” Lyn said.

He said even now, at age 86, he is still being asked by constituents to again contest the seat.

However, Lyn said he will support Wint, although he suggested that the man who has thrice contested and lost parliamentary elections on a PNP ticket would not have been his preferred candidate.

“The selection has been made by the party, of which I am not in the hierarchy. I am a member of the PNP still. Only to say that I am not going to question the candidate that will represent the party,” Lyn said.

“If I have a preference [as to who should be the candidate], that is my own personal view. Whoever the party is nominating I am going with — win, lose, or draw. But to be positive I say, even though Wint has a losing streak, the saying is that you try and try and try until you succeed… all is not lost,” he added.

Wint 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.

According to Lyn, he has been receiving reports that people in Manchester North Eastern are saying that Shaw should have done more for them over the three decades that he has been MP and a minister of Government.

“As I get it from a lot of the voters, they are tired,” said Lyn.

He claimed that many years ago Shaw had campaigned alongside him for the PNP before switching to the JLP.

“He was well liked… he campaigned with me in 1972 and 1976,” said Lyn, who claimed that before 1989 when he beat Shaw, the JLP had thought that the seat “was theirs for eternity”.

“They believed they couldn’t lose it, but I did my walk foot and my way of campaigning and broke the trend after 22 years, so another PNP representative can come and break the 31-year reign. History is created every day and I did it in 1989,” said Lyn, who had also served three terms as councillor for the Christiana Division.

He said he will be on the ground campaigning for the PNP, “but they don’t have to [necessarily] see me, because as Audley would say, I deal with the dead and he deal with the living. But I deal with all the spirits seen and the unseen.”