Veteran People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for St Catherine Southern Fitz Jackson, who has held that seat since 1994, was on Monday not forthcoming about whether this will be his last race. He is facing the Jamaica Labour Party’s Delroy Dobney and Pastor Courtney Morrison of the Jamaica Progressive Party (JPP) in the September 3 General Election.

An “elated” Jackson, who arrived at Ascot High School in St Catherine nearly two hours after his 10:15 nomination time, would only say, “I run each election one at a time,” when asked.

The veteran Member of Parliament, who has held the seat since winning a 1994 by-election, was however upbeat about his prospects in the upcoming general election.

“After my long duration of service, it was very, very humbling to see the level of excitement from a cross section of my constituents who I have represented and worked with over the years. Particularly heartened by the number of young persons who are with me today who actually grew up in my hands, and there is a kind of paternity for them. They have become my family and I feel very strongly about that,” he told the Jamaica Observer moments after being nominated.

Jackson, who polled 6,318 votes to Dobson’s 5,576 in the 2020 General Election, said he remains focused on realising the vision he has harboured for constituents.

“Many over the years have developed into productive Jamaican citizens, which is what we set out to do from day one, to build a human resource capacity coming out of South St Catherine that can self-actualise and make meaningful contribution to the development of Jamaica. We have done tremendously well there, but there is more to be achieved, and we are on that vision come September 3. We have an open tent, many JLP may even come with us too in recognition of the many achievements over the years, and it’s boundless,” he said confidently.

Monday’s nomination day activities at Ascot High School, though largely uneventful, saw members of the security forces and electoral office staff chafing at the late show of prospective candidates, fearing that there could be clashes between supporters.

Meanwhile, the JPP’s Morrison was unfazed by Jackson’s political muscles.

“We want to end the diatribe that exists; we are more for purpose than we are for party and partisan politics. We want to restore the confidence of our voters… especially having a 67 per cent who have refrained from voting. So it is our aim to show that as we said, righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people. It is our platform to stand on that and ensure that people get fair, honest representation with integrity and can restore their faith that politics must never be connoted with corruption. Politics is the governing of a country and doing so for the benefit of the people who reside in that country,” Morrison told the Observer minutes after being nominated.

According to the religious leader, the support from the Christian community was his for the taking.

“So far, especially in my constituency, persons are very happy. I spoke with persons from our Ministers’ Fraternal in St Catherine, Guy’s Hill, Linstead, Old Harbour, Spanish Town and they are excited. We have 1.3 million Christians who can sway the vote and as such, those are who we are looking forward to. They are happy that they can have Christian, godly representation in Parliament,” he said.

As to his prospects for shaking Jackson, who has been in the seat since 1994, Morrison, laughing, said, “Time come. Indeed it is time. Right party, right time.”

The cavalcade with Dobney aboard missed this reporter by minutes as he proceeded to the nomination centre moments ahead of the 2:00 pm close-out time for nominations.