SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Patricia Duncan Sutherland, the People’s National Party (PNP) Women’s Movement president, has urged voters in Westmoreland Central to ensure that the sitting Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Member of Parliament (MP) George Wright is prevented from returning to Parliament.

“Comrades of Central Westmoreland, are you going to make sure that George Wright cannot go back to Parliament? He must not go back to Parliament. Women of Central Westmoreland, women of Jamaica, George Wright must not go back to Parliament. We must take a stand, we are powerful people, we are powerful persons in our own right as women, and we can take a stand; we don’t have to put ourselves back, we don’t have to take it,” Duncan Sutherland stated at a PNP Women’s Rally at Manning’s School in Westmoreland on Sunday.

Duncan Sutherland was referring to an incident in which a man believed to be Wright was seen in a viral social media video hitting a woman with a stool during what appeared to be a fight.

Wright has neither confirmed nor denied that he is the man seen in the video.

Days later, the police closed their probe into the matter as a result of the unwillingness of the parties involved and potential witnesses to participate in the investigation, as well as the poor quality of the video alleged to capture the incident.

Wright and his partner have since wed.

In his address, PNP President Mark Golding said the JLP allowing Wright to run again “is a bad signal in terms of how this country needs to move forward”.

“We want to establish centres in each parish that will allow women who have been attacked or otherwise abused in any way to report it, to get checked and to receive counselling and support in a safe, secure and stable environment,” stated Golding.

“Jamaica needs to take the issue of domestic violence and gender-based violence seriously. It is a part of our culture that we must adjust and reform and the State needs to get behind that with the institutional arrangements that can support victims but also in terms of the messaging that can change the culture and make us a more respectful, listening kind of people,” added Golding.