MANCHESTER, Jamaica – Jamaica Labour Party incumbent and Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern Robert Chin lost to businessman Ian Ives in an internal election on Sunday as the party prepares for the next parliamentary poll.

JLP Deputy Leader Michael Stern confirmed that Ives was leading in the preliminary result following the workers’ vote. Another businessman Adion Peart was also on the ballot for the internal election.

“We had a consultation with the workers to basically ask them who would they prefer. The last time was whether or not they have confidence in Mr Chin,” said Stern in reference to a yes/ no vote that Chin had gained the vote of the then majority of workers.

“… And this time it is whether or not they choose one of the candidates who were interviewed by the party to move forward and that is not final until we have to final result going to the operations council and the selection’s committee,” added Stern.

He was cautious in explaining the outcome of the election to the media.

“So even though today we had the run off, a result which will come out in the public eye, we have to go back to the party and meet at the operations council and selection committee to make the final call, so at this moment you might have heard that Mr Ives is leading in the count, but that still has to be done at the party headquarters where we have the general secretary present to the operations council the result and we assess what we have done, so that will be in a few days [and it] will be official,” said Stern.

When asked about the timing of the vote in an election year and whether it could affect the party’s chance in the election, Stern expressed confidence in the JLP retaining Manchester Southern.

“There is no closeness as long as it is done democratically clean and it was done fairly, it was done honestly and we made sure that the process was smooth and today went fairly smooth right across the board,” said Stern.

In a preliminary result shared with the Observer, Ives polled 221 votes compared to 145 for Chin and 34 for Peart. Manchester Southern consists of four divisions namely Alligator Pond, Grove Town, Porus and Newport.

Ives has vowed to unite JLP workers and supporters in Manchester Southern where the PNP’s Peter Bunting is also vying to contest the constituency in the parliamentary election due by September.

“I want to say thanks to all the supporters, all the delegates and the two sitting councillors, and two caretaker councillors for the victory and I want to say thanks to the almighty God foremost for all this,” he said.

“I am very elated and now looking forward to extend my hand to the sitting Member of Parliament and to Adion Peart who would have fought a good battle and yes I came out on top and now we have a lot of work to do and we are to unite the party, because we are not a divided party, we are a united party and then to take home the seat in the general election whenever that is called,” he added.

Chin created a political upset when he unseated Michael Stewart of the PNP by 890 votes in the September 2020 general election. Chin polled 6,826 votes to Stewart’s 5,936.

Back in 2016, Stewart won the seat comfortably by 1,176 votes — polling 8,398 to the JLP’s Hidran McKulsky’s 7,222 votes.

Chin was parachuted into the constituency as a late replacement for former JLP standard-bearer Junior Robinson, who bowed out suddenly one week before Nomination Day.

Prior to the September 2020 general election, the last time the JLP won Manchester Southern in a contested poll was in 1980. The seat was retained in the snap parliamentary election of 1983 that was not contested by the PNP.

– Kasey Williams