MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Unfazed by criticism that he lost his Manchester Central seat to political neophyte Rhoda Crawford in 2020, People’s National Party (PNP) heavyweight Peter Bunting says even the much-loved PJ Patterson lost his seat in Westmoreland South Eastern in 1980.

“I have contested five elections as a candidate and I ran a sixth one as campaign manager, so I have five out of six victories — and even the great PJ Patterson lost his seat in 1980. I think I have a good track record to defend — not perfect, but I have never ran in a safe seat and I certainly intend to come back into the winning column in Southern Manchester,” Bunting told the Jamaica Observer last Wednesday.

Bunting, the then incumbent Member of Parliament for Manchester Central, polled 6,989 votes to Crawford’s 8,139 votes in the September 3, 2020 General Election — breaking his winning streak in that seat.

He had secured three consecutive victories in Manchester Central since 2007, along with another triumph in Clarendon South Eastern — his first — over former Prime Minister Hugh Lawson Shearer in the 1993 General Election.

In January 2024 he confirmed his interest in Manchester Southern and was nominated last Monday as the PNP’s candidate in that constituency.

He pointed to a vast difference between Manchester Southern, Manchester Central and Clarendon South Eastern.

“It is probably the strongest PNP seat [for which] I have offered myself as a candidate and so, based on what I am seeing with my experience, not just as a candidate but as general secretary in the landslide victory of 2011, I think I can be comfortable in predicting a solid victory in South Manchester,” Bunting told the Sunday Observer.

When asked about his about-turn on the decision to leave representational politics, deciding instead to contest the traditional PNP seat, Bunting said he simply answered the call.

“I was being encouraged by the councillor for the Newport Division [Anthony Bryce], by many Comrades across the constituency…[It wasn’t] that I was leaving politics but I was prepared to leave representational politics. But, I always had the caveat…that if the party called, if the trumpet sounded and I was approached, I would return to representational politics,” he said.

Bunting said the party’s General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell and President Mark Golding showed him how important it was for him to contest the Manchester Southern seat, given his familiarity with the parish.

“[They] did approach me and say, ‘Look, we know you were happy to serve in the Senate and be at the centre as a sort of senior advisor to the campaign but we think south Manchester needs a candidate like you. You have been in the parish for a couple decades now and you shared a border, so is not like you are going to a completely strange place; you have a home in Mandeville, and so on,’ ” Bunting explained.

He also hit back at criticisms that he is contesting the seat “for power”.

“I don’t know what power they are talking about. But certainly, if I had said I want to continue in politics — not in representational politics — if I continued as the leader of the party’s business in the Senate I could be in the Cabinet, I could still be minister of national security, I could still be in whatever governmental position, so I don’t really see any legitimacy in this claim that I want power.

“I have been general secretary; I have been a Cabinet minister — that is neither here nor there to me. What is important to me is — even if I hadn’t been called on by the leadership — the state of the country now…I would have been compelled, if even outside of politics, to take a stand against what I see going on now,” Bunting added.

He told the Sunday Observer that PNP’s strategy in Manchester Southern, which has the divisions of Alligator Pond, Newport, Porus, and Grove Town, is to target each division.

“Alligator Pond and Newport, we expect a strong lead in both those divisions. Porus was [almost] 50-50 in the local government [election, and] I had only been here a few weeks. I had put in a lot of work in Porus [Councillor Claudia Morant-Baker, JLP]; I also expect to win [there] comfortably,” he said.

Bunting expressed confidence that the PNP can also take over the JLP’s base in Grove Town (Councillor Iceval “Cherry” Brown, JLP).

“As you could see in the local government [election], we cut the margin in half in a few weeks. And, based on the canvas that we have done; based on the work, the organisation work, that we have put in, I am confident that, at a minimum, we will break even — but most likely we will win the Grove Town Division,” he added.

Having gone up against and losing to a newcomer in 2020, Bunting is again battling another political neophyte, Ian Ives. But, according to the seasoned politician and businessman, his opponent is facing an “uphill task”.

“The difference is that 2020 was a landslide in the JLP’s favour — traditionally safe PNP seats, much less battleground [seats], we lost. That is what happens when there is a landslide swing one way or the other. This is a very different situation now,” said Bunting. “I think the PNP is in its ascendancy…the party workers are energised.

“We have the best campaign song; we had a tremendously successful manifesto launch. We had a nomination day that was epic in terms of the support that was on the street for the PNP across the country,” insisted Bunting.

Admitting that he does not know Ives well, Bunting said: “What I do know is that he has no track record of service in the constituency; he has no discernible track record of service in politics, generally. I don’t think he has any landslide wave to ride so I think he is facing an uphill task.”

Ives won a JLP internal election over the incumbent Member of Parliament for the constituency, Robert Chin, and party promoter Adion Peart, to represent the party in the upcoming general election. Both Chin and Peart were last Monday nominated as JLP candidates in the constituencies of Clarendon South Western and St Ann South Eastern, respectively.

In 2020 Chin created a political upset when he unseated Michael Stewart of the PNP in Manchester Southern, defeating him by 890 votes at the close of polls on September 3. Chin amassed 6,826 votes to Stewart’s 5,936.

Back in 2016 Stewart comfortably won the seat by 1,176 votes, polling 8,398 to the JLP’s Hidran McKulsky’s 7,222.

In the meantime, Bunting took a jab at the JLP’s campaign in Manchester Southern, claiming that, “Labourites are divided”.

“There is still a faction loyal to the former MP Robert Chin and they are quite bitter about how he was ‘thrown under the bus’, to use their term. I think it will be very hard to get that faction motivated,” he told the Sunday Observer while predicting a large voter turnout in favour of the PNP.

“[The PNP will get] somewhere in the region of 10,000 votes [in Manchester Southern]. The JLP has never passed more than 7,000 [odd votes] so even if they turn out their best ever, we expect a margin that will be in the thousands, not in the hundreds,” a confident Bunting said.

The former Cabinet minister said he has big plans for the constituency, if he is elected, including the rehabilitation of the near 30-kilometre coast road from Alligator Pond to Milk River into a community tourism zone, which he called his “legacy” project.

“Roads, water, light, some of the school plants, the clinics — all generally speaking — need to be improved but in terms of the human side, one of the things that has pained me is how many people, young and middle age…to get a job, have to leave the constituency,” he said while pointing to plans for entrepreneurial and training opportunities for young people.

“I want to create opportunities so that those who want to remain in the communities where they were born and grew up can do that and make a good living, and make a better life for themselves right where they are,” he said.

“That coast road from Alligator Pond going back to Milk River, we want to really make that into a hub for ecotourism and community tourism . It is more along the lines of a Treasure Beach sort of operation [with] lots of restaurants, villas, small hotels, and tours that can create hundreds, potentially thousands of jobs along that stretch.

“The first thing we need to do to enable it is to repave that coast road and reopen it…It [was once] a beautiful road but now it is all closed up with bush, and some parts are virtually impassable for a normal vehicle. And then the fact that you don’t get any phone signal along most of the road is also intimidating for people…When they talk about the legacy of Peter Bunting as MP, I want that coast road to be the Peter Bunting highway,” he said.

Karen Angella Scott of the Jamaica Progressive Party, which joined forces with Jamaica First Movement, launched by prominent clergyman Al Miller, has also joined the race in Manchester Southern after being duly nominated last Monday.

– See related stories on pages 20-25

The constituency of Manchester Southern, with the different divisions identified. (Photo: Electoral Commission of Jamaica)