SAVANNA LA MAR, Westmoreland — Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmoreland Central, Dwayne Vaz has rejected claims of the partisan distribution of relief supplies in the constituency.

The accusation had come from the former MP for the constituency, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) George Wright, who recently claimed residents had alleged that Vaz was only issuing care packages to supporters of the People’s National Party (PNP).

But the PNP’s Vaz says there is no evidence that he has been distributing relief supplies on a political basis.

“Our distribution is being done house to house,” Vaz explained. “We choose an area each day and go in with care packages. We give everyone we see. I only do central distribution when a group is coming in and don’t have the time to do house by house.”

He said that while he has not been to all communities in his constituency as yet, he has been to most.

“The information is out there on social media showing where I am every day,” Vaz told Observer Online.

“Based on where we are and what we are doing, we would know that what he is claiming… is just not so. [On Friday], we were in Friendship with Bert’s Auto Parts. I took them in Friendship to a school, and everybody came out. I don’t know everybody who are JLP or PNP, that doesn’t matter to me. Then we went in Content and up by Grange, and we actually stopped house to house and everybody we saw we gave them something. And that is the method of distribution I use wherever I am going. We full up the van with stuff, and we stop and give everybody we see,” added Vaz.

He told Observer Online that his distribution drive is being supported by private donors, as the $1.5 million allocation from the Government received before Hurricane Melissa has already been depleted.

Another $1.5 million allocation is to be sent to MPs, but Vaz said he has not yet received that as yet.

According to Vaz, a minimum of 200 care packages are distributed daily in each community he visits in the constituency.

— Rosalee Wood Condell