CLARENDON, Jamaica— Vice-president of the People’s National Party (PNP) Mikhail Phillips says he is confident that his party will win the by-election now underway in the Aenon Town Division in Clarendon.

Speaking with Observer Online at polling division (PD) 23 at Trout Hall All Age School Friday morning Phillips said the party supporters are coming out to vote.

“This morning for the PNP we have a consistent turnout of voters. We are meeting our target so far. It’s still early. We will win this PD – PD 23, and I expect that we will win the division here in the by-election.”

“The turnout is consistent but slow, so I expect that later on in the day, we will see an uptick in the turn out, but so far we’re good,” said Phillips.

He argued that despite the party’s candidate Delroy Dawson losing to Marjorie McLeod of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the local government elections in February, Comrades are excited to return the seat to the PNP.

“This is historically a PNP division, and yes we lost it in February. And I think that, seeing even though it was a short time that they had a JLP councillor in the division, voters have recognised that there needs to be a resetting.”

“The former councillor is the candidate here now – Dawson and I think that the Comrades are really motivated to come out and vote, seeing that we are going into a period of general election. This will then send an indication of where the support base [is] for the PNP, not only in the division but the constituency [Clarendon Northern] itself. So I expect that at the end of the day, the People’s National Party should come out victorious,” declared Phillips.

—Oneil Madden