Holness ‘like a lost soul looking for a place to rest’ says Bunting
Unfazed by JLP’s campaign in Manchester Southern
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for Manchester Southern Peter Bunting has scoffed at Prime Minister and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Dr Andrew Holness’ comments regarding the JLP’s campaign in the constituency.
Holness, while on a tour of Manchester Southern on Tuesday, said the JLP “will be campaigning in the constituency heavily and strategically” as he sought to shore up support for the party’s candidate Ian Ives.
Bunting took a jab at Holness’s comments and compared the JLP’s campaign to that of the PNP.
“I don’t know what ‘strategically’ is a euphemism for, but what I know is he [Holness] spent most of the afternoon wandering around Manchester like a lost soul looking for a place to rest. He didn’t get to Alligator Pond until almost 1:00 am,” Bunting told the Jamaica Observer in Mandeville on Wednesday.
He said the JLP’s campaign has not been substantive in proposing any plans for the country.
“The truth of the matter is that the type of campaigning that we have seen in Manchester demonstrates nothing but contempt for the people. All they have done is gone around, given black drums, given out chickens…,” Bunting said.
“They have come with no plans, no proposals, no track record of performance… we see nothing substantive that you would expect from a Government that has been in office for 10 years…,” he added.
Bunting, who lost to the JLP’s Rhoda Moy Crawford in the 2020 polls in Manchester Central, is set to face off with Ives. Crawford polled 8,139 votes to Bunting’s 6,989 in the 2020 election.
Ives won an internal battle over former Member of Parliament for the constituency Robert Chin and party promoter Adion Peart. Both Chin and Peart were nominated in the constituencies of Clarendon South Western and St Ann South Eastern, respectively, on Monday as JLP candidates.
Chin created a political upset when he unseated Michael Stewart of the PNP by 890 votes in the September 3, 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.