KINGSTON, Jamaica — People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for St Catherine South East, Alfred Dawes, says Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) incumbent Robert Miller only won in the 2020 General Elections because of COVID-19 pandemic strictures.

He was speaking at the nomination centre at Bridgeport High School on Monday.

Dr Dawes said he is confident he will close the gap and sweep the elections on September 3. Dawes replaced Colin Fagan. In the 2020 elections, Fagan polled 5,735 to Miller’s 6,929.

In the meantime, Dr Dawes say he will be making a pointed effort to focus on the constituency of St Catherine South East, promising a campaign centred on health, unity and better representation.

“Health is not just the absence of disease, it’s the absence of stress whether it’s stress worrying about mosquitoes, drainage, bad roads at your front end part, financial stress, and it’s about where you can have recreational areas where you can go,” he said.

Dawes also pledged to end what he called “five years of a disjointed government”, accusing the current administration of passing responsibility between Members of Parliament (MP) and councillors.

“What I’m saying to the citizens of St Catherine South East is that you will have a joint government. There will be no councillor road or MP road, no councillor drain or MP drain. There will be a south east drain, a south east park, and a south east road,” he said.

The candidate argued that both allocations from MPs and councillors must be pooled to fix problems in the constituency. He pledged to advocate just as strongly as he has in his past roles whether as a union president or in his fight for better healthcare for patients at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital.

Dawes said the PNP base is now “energised far beyond what anyone has seen in recent times” following the setbacks of the COVID-19 pandemic. He insisted that undecided voters are increasingly shifting toward his party because they are “fed up with what is happening nationally” and want a candidate who can represent them.

At the same time, Dawes urged that recent polls be viewed in context, noting that the government will face far greater scrutiny as it seeks re-election.

“The role of the government is far different from the role of the opposition. The opposition’s role is to point out issues with the government, but whenever we do that, all you hear is that we are criticising and not offering solutions and every time we offer a solution, they thief it,” he said.

He further accused the administration of “buying votes through these fifty thousand and twenty thousand giveaways”, while contending that the PNP has traditionally been held to a higher standard.

Dawes assured supporters that the growing momentum would carry through to Election Day, as he positioned himself as a candidate willing to “fight for St Catherine South East”