ONCE seen as fresh faces riding the wave of success to Gordon House, 10 first-time Members of Parliament who won their seat in the 2020 General Election have been sent packing after the
September 3 polls. All 10 of them are members of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Among them are Robert Miller, Dr Michelle Charles, Tamika Davis, Dwight Sibblies, Robert Chin, Daniel Lawrence, George Wright, Homer Davis, and Delroy Slowley. Also on the list is Morland Wilson, who did not even make it to the ballot, having been denied the chance to contest his seat for a second time in the 2025 General Election.

The 2020 General Election has been referred to as an anomaly, with COVID-19 disrupting traditional campaigning, voter engagement, and election dynamics in unprecedented ways. In fact, the lowest voter turnout in the history of elections in Jamaica was recorded in 2020, coming in at 37.9 per cent.

Here are the 10 MPs who contested the general election five years ago and were on the ballot for 2025, but lost.

Robert Miller

Robert Miller made history in 2020 when he became the first JLP candidate to capture St Catherine South Eastern since 1989. His victory ended the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) long hold on the constituency, unseating Colin Fagan who had represented the constituency since 2007, after succeeding Dr Paul Robertson. Miller secured 6,844 votes to Fagan’s 5,720 votes in 2020.

However, he was unable to hold on to the support of voters in the constituency, losing his seat in the 2025 General Election to newcomer Dr Alfred Dawes of the PNP. In the preliminary count Dawes secured 7,754 votes to Miller’s 7,187, stripping the incumbent of his place in Gordon House.

Dr Michelle Charles

In St Thomas Eastern, Charles carved out her own piece of history in 2020 when she unseated PNP heavyweight Dr Fenton Ferguson. Ferguson had first captured the constituency in 1993, ending the JLP’s over four-decade dominance by defeating Pearnel Charles Sr, Michelle’s father. Nearly three decades later, Charles avenged that loss, defeating Ferguson with 6,124 votes to his 5,393.

But her triumph proved short-lived. In the 2025 General Election, Charles was dethroned by the PNP’s Yvonne Shaw, who secured 7,356 votes in the preliminary count to Charles’s 6,937.

Daniel Lawrence

Lawrence narrowly defeated PNP stalwart Luther Buchanan by a margin of just 11 votes after a magisterial recount, to become a first-time Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern in 2020. At the time, he polled 4,862 votes to Buchanan’s 4,851. However, he did not have similar luck in 2025. Lawrence was unseated by Dr Dayton Campbell who reclaimed the seat for the PNP by a decisive margin of 7,558 votes to Lawrence’s 5,624.

George Wright

Wright entered the House of Representatives in September 2020, winning the Westmoreland Central seat for the JLP — a remarkable feat in a constituency long held by the PNP. He defeated the incumbent Dwayne Vaz, gaining 8,477 votes to his 7,288 votes, securing victory by a margin of 1,189 votes.

However, his tenure became steeped in controversy in 2021 when a video surfaced showing a man, widely believed to be Wright, assaulting a woman with a stool. Though he never confirmed whether or not he was the person in the video, he resigned from the JLP and served the remainder of his term as an independent Member of Parliament.

Following a period of counselling and what the JLP deemed “mitigating actions”, the JLP reinstated him to the party.

But on September 3 Wright ultimately lost the seat in the 2025 General Election as Dwayne Vaz reclaimed Westmoreland Central with 9,916 votes, while Wright received 8,385 votes.

Tamika Davis

An attorney-at-law, Davis made her parliamentary debut in 2020 when she defeated the PNP’s Ian Hayles who had represented Hanover Western since 2007. Davis secured 6,028 votes to Hayles’ 4,999, ending his reign.

However, warning signs that Davis would not hold the seat for long came early. In the 2024 Local Government Elections the PNP swept all four divisions in the constituency and all seven divisions across the parish, signalling that Davis faced an uphill battle to retain her seat once put to the test. The prediction held true when Davis lost to fellow attorney-at-law Heatha Miller-Bennett, who polled 6,995 votes to Davis’s 5,907. Notably, the 2025 race marked the first time two women contested the seat in Hanover Western.

Dwight Sibblies

Similarly, Dwight Sibblies’ bid to keep Clarendon Northern in the JLP column, after his historic 2020 victory, fell short. Riding high that year, Sibblies defeated PNP stalwart Horace Dalley — who had served the constituency from 1989 to 2007 and again from 2011 to 2020 — securing 6,058 votes to Dalley’s 5,345.

However, in 2025 the PNP handed the baton to former cricketer Wavell Hinds who promptly knocked Sibblies’ chances of returning to Gordon House out of the park. When the preliminary count closed on September 3, Hinds tallied 5,763 votes to Sibblies’ 5,541.

Robert Chin

After losing to the PNP’s Ronald Thwaites in Kingston Central in the 2016 General Election, Robert Chin switched gears to Manchester Southern, where he was first elected Member of Parliament in 2020.

However, his post-election performance drew criticisms from within the party, and confidence in his leadership began to erode. The JLP subsequently conducted an internal election to determine his political future and Chin was challenged by businessmen Ian Ives and Adion Peart. Ives came out on top and was listed as the party’s candidate for Manchester Southern for the 2025 election. Ives went up against the PNP’s Peter Bunting and lost by 670 votes.

A similar fate awaited Chin who sought refuge in Clarendon South Western. He went up against the PNP’s Lothan Cousins and lost by a massive margin of more than 2,300 votes.

Delroy Slowley

In the 2016 General Election, Delroy Slowley entered the political arena as an independent candidate in St Elizabeth North Eastern, securing 696 votes — an unexpected showing in Jamaica’s landscape. The seat was ultimately won by the PNP’s Evon Redman who polled 7,733 votes to the JLP’s Saphire Longmore’s 6,209 votes.

Slowley later aligned himself with the JLP and, in 2020, captured the constituency with 7,055 votes, defeating the PNP’s Basil Waite who received 6,562.

His reign only lasted one term, however, as he was axed after the PNP’s Zuleika Jess, a first-time Member of Parliament-elect, received 8,331 votes to his 7,735.

Morland Wilson

Wilson served his first term as Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western in 2020, defeating the PNP’s Wykeham McNeill by more than 1,000 votes. Despite that victory he later lost the confidence of party delegates, prompting an internal election to decide whether he would continue as the JLP’s standard-bearer. He was challenged by Sheffield Division Councillor Dr Garfield James, who ultimately unseated him.

On August 18 James was officially declared the party’s candidate for the 2025 General Election. However, his own bid for Parliament ended in defeat on September 3 as he lost Westmoreland Western to the PNP’s Ian Hayles. James polled 6,024 votes, while Hayles secured 7,992.

Homer Davis

A former mayor of Montego Bay and councillor for the Cambridge Division, Homer Davis was a first timer to parliamentary elections when he won his seat in St James Southern in 2020. Davis defeated the PNP’s Walton Small with 7,245 votes to Small’s 5,295. The former minister of state in the Ministry of Local Government & Rural Development was again put up as the party’s candidate in the 2025 General Election. However, a preliminary count indicated he was narrowly unseated by PNP challenger Nekeisha Burchell, who obtained 6,483 votes to Davis’s 6,276, flipping the seat to the PNP by a margin of just over 200 votes.

Robert Miller, outgoing Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Eastern

Dr Michelle Charles, former Member of Parliament for St Thomas Eastern

Tamika Davis, former Member of Parliament for Hanover Western

Robert Chin, former Member of Parliament for Manchester Southern

Morland Wilson, former Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Western

Delroy Slowley, former Member of Parliament for St Elizabeth North Eastern

Dwight Sibblies, former Member of Parliament for Clarendon Northern

Homer Davis, outgoing Member of Parliament for St James Southern

Outgoing Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Eastern Daniel Lawrence

George Wright, outgoing Member of Parliament for Westmoreland Central