Daryl Vaz on Sunday reflected on his political journey in the Portland Western constituency and assured the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) that he and his wife Ann-Marie, the Member of Parliament in neighbouring Portland Eastern, will retain both seats in the upcoming general election.

“I am in a reflective mood because I think it is important tonight to give my journey. People only hear that Portland is green and that my name is Mr Portland and Ann-Marie is Mrs Portland and that Portland is Vaz land,” he told JLP supporters at a gospel concert in Port Antonio, which also served as an awards ceremony for the party’s workers in Portland Western.

“I came to Portland in 2003 on behalf of the Jamaica Labour Party. Bruce Golding was in charge of Portland for the parish council election and he asked me to come and work with him. I had a relationship with Portland because I had been coming to Portland since I was eight years old. It was my family’s favourite parish to vacation,” Vaz said.

“Cut a long story short, we won the 2003 local government election 5-4. I then went to run in Portland Western in 2007 after 18 years of People’s National Party (PNP) representation. I was successful and I won one by-election and four-straight elections between 2007 and 2020. It goes further than that because I want the people viewing this and my colleagues who may not know the story of how the west was won,” Vaz said.

He shared that after contesting five elections against different PNP candidates, none of them have ever returned to challenge him.

The veteran MP said that although he was the man for the JLP in Portland Western, the party was not so strong in Portland Eastern.

“The east was won [by the PNP] for more than 30 unbroken years. While I was working in the west, the people of the east were not feeling the work. In 2019 we had the unfortunate passing of the People’s National Party Member of Parliament Lynvale Bloomfield and a by-election was called. My wife said to me, ‘You have taught me everything I need to know. If you come with me to the east, I will run and win this seat’,” he told the meeting.

“Nobody believed it was possible, including the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party. I said to the leadership of the Jamaica Labour Party that the people believe in me, the people believe in the Jamaica Labour Party and the people will support Ann-Marie Vaz. The rest is history. She won the seat in 2019 and she won the seat in 2020 and the first victim was the goat man,” he said, a reference to the PNP’s Damion Crawford.

“The second was a pastor [Purcell Jackson]. It means that in Portland Eastern and Western we have beaten seven candidates and none of them have come back a second time,” Vaz said.

He alluded that JLP leader, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness, should feel comfortable enough to tick off the two seats in Portland as safe seats for the JLP and recommended that the party leaders and other members of the party turn their focus on other constituencies across to island.

“Tick off these two seats. Daryl Vaz seh suh. Go and look at other green pastures weh need help throughout the length and breadth of Jamaica. I give the prime minister my assurance. We have two new candidates, one in the west and one in the east. The one in the east is a twice-convicted drug felon, deported from the United States and imported into Portland Eastern with all kinds of lyrics about which Vaz him a go bruk and how much Vaz him a go bruk.

“Seven PNP don’t bruk one of the Vaz dem yet and these two won’t bruk any Vaz because dem yah Vaz yah mek out of metal and steel. I leave it at that and to say to my prime minister and deputy leader and all my colleagues here… when you leave here tonight, you don’t have to come back,” Vaz said.