THERE are increasingly louder whispers in political circles that the People’s National Party (PNP) is close to selecting former Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Owen Speid to be its next standard-bearer in Portland Eastern.

So far there has been no official word from the PNP, while efforts to contact Speid, who migrated to the United States in 2021 — after more than 32 years in the Jamaican education sector — have been unsuccessful.

But Jamaica Observer sources say recent opinion polls have convinced the PNP that the man it had initially selected to be its candidate — Councillor Colin Bell (Fellowship Division) — in Portland Eastern would not be able to topple the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Ann-Marie Vaz, who represents the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

“The polls show the PNP leading the JLP by some 10 percentage points in Portland Eastern but Bell [is] trailing Vaz by more than five percentage points so the party had to make a decision — as this is one of the seats it has to take back if it is to form the next Government,” said an Observer source with close ties to the PNP.

Only twice, 2007 and 2016 has a party lost Portland Eastern and won the general election.

“Speid was born and raised in Windsor Castle in the neighbouring Portland Western but it is believed that it would be in the party’s best interest to have him in Portland Eastern, because we can lose to Daryl [Vaz] in the west and still win the election but we must win the east — which is ours for the taking,” added the source.

“Watch out for the ‘Build with Speid’ slogan if you have not seen it already,” the source said as he pointed to a poster that is being shared on social media by JLP trolls, with no confirmation that it was done by the PNP.

According to the source, the only confirmation so far is that Speid has indicated to the Mark Golding-led party that he would be willing to return home to contest the seat.

Speid is a graduate of Titchfield High School, The Mico University College, and Western Carolina University in the United States.

He also pursued part-time studies in marketing as a University of Technology, Jamaica student, and briefly worked as a life insurance agent before entering the classroom in 1989 as a teacher at Mona Primary School.

Speid took over as principal of Port Royal Primary School before being appointed principal of Rousseau Primary School in 2012, before he migrated in 2021.

As a member of the JTA for 30 years Speid served as the parish president for St Andrew before being elected president in 2019.

During his time heading the JTA, which represents more than 20,000 public school teachers, Speid had several clashes with the Holness Administration, including a spat — while he was only president-elect — over what he claimed was an attempt by the Ministry of Education to cover up the performance of students who sat the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam.

Speid had claimed, among other things, that the ministry switched from percentage scoring to a scale scoring system to withhold information on the performance of students.

The then education minister, Karl Samuda, rejected Speid’s accusations, labelling them “false, unfortunate, and highly inflammatory”.

The outspoken Speid also lamented the make-up of several school boards across the country, saying that political activists are sometimes stymieing operations and using their power to bully teachers in the public education system.

He also charged that some headmasters were running these schools like gods, paying little regard to teachers’ rights and effecting unreasonable punishments — including dismissals — without following due process.

In his parting shot Speid reportedly described present Minister of Education Fayval Williams as the worst he has seen, with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who held that portfolio from 2007 to 2011, coming a close second on the worst performers’ list.

Portland Eastern election since 1980

1980

Anthony Abrahams, JLP 10,196

Keith Rhodd, PNP 7,827

Mable Phillips, IND 93

JLP elected to form the Government

1983

No contest by the PNP

1989

Headley S Lawrence, PNP 8,799

Dennis M Wright, JLP 6,426

PNP elected to form the Government

1993

Headley S Lawrence, PNP 5,300

Percival Latouche, JLP 3,778

Lawrence L Robertson IND 1,387

PNP elected to form the Government

1997

Donald Rhodd, PNP 7,737

Samuel Roberts, JLP 4,438

Mernell Green-Lindner, NDM 213

Percival Latouche, IND 173

PNP elected to form the Government

2002

Dennis Minott JLP 5,781

Donald Rhodd, PNP 8,082

PNP elected to form the Government

2007

Donald Rhodd, PNP 8,236

Dennis Wright, JLP 7,441

JLP elected to form the Government

2011

Lynvale Bloomfield, PNP 9,316

Patrick Lee, JLP 8,070

PNP elected to form the Government

2016

Lynvale Bloomfield, PNP 8,606

Dennis Minott, IND 67

Derron Wood, JLP 6,330

JLP elected to form the Government

2019 by-election

Ann-Marie Vaz, JLP 9,989

Damion Crawford, PNP 9,670

2020

Ann-Marie Vaz, JLP 8,360

Purcell Jackson, PNP 6,325