THE People’s National Party (PNP) is reportedly reconsidering its decision to select former president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) Owen Speid as its next candidate for Portland Eastern.

Speid is reportedly heading home from the United States, where he has been since 2021 when he migrated with his family after more than 32 years in the Jamaican education sector.

But, on the verge of his return to his homeland, PNP sources have told the Jamaica Observer that Speid, who has launched a major campaign on social media, could be returning home to disappointment.

According to the sources, there has been a sudden decision to switch from Speid and stick with the party’s original choice, councillor for the Fellowship Division in Portland Eastern Colin Bell.

The sources pointed out that the PNP was initially convinced to go with Speid after two polls showed that Bell 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 had found that the PNP was leading the JLP by some 10 percentage points in Portland Eastern, but Bell was trailing Vaz by more than five percentage points.

This prompted the party to ditch Bell as this is one of the seats it has to reclaim if it is to form the next Government.

However, a more recent poll reportedly commissioned by the party’s General Secretary Dayton Campbell shows the PNP and the JLP in a dead heat in the constituency while Bell and Vaz are also in a dead heat.

“It is clear that the gen sec wants to go with Bell, but it is a problem because there are councillors in the constituency, who are adamant that they want to go with Speid,” said one source.

“This is going to become Dayton’s problem because, if he goes with Bell, the councillors might not do any work in the lead-up to the election, but [yet] it is not clear that Speid can get the support of the Comrades on the ground who are backing Bell,” added the source.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, from his North Carolina home last week, the west Portland-born Speid said returning to his land of birth and contributing to politics was “like ABC”.

“I am anxious to serve because when God has given you a talent you must use it. One of my strongest areas is advocacy. I have been an internal advocate throughout my career in teaching, from when I became a classroom teacher to when I became a principal.

“It’s funny that I started writing educational articles, contributing to newspapers — the Observer included — after I became a principal. I started on behalf of the teachers, defending their rights and defending them in a robust way,” said the man who headed the powerful teachers’ union from 2019 to 2020.

“I enjoy giving a voice to the voiceless, empowering the weak and strengthening them to become something of substance in the society. I am a servant leader, really, and I always try to know the issues by getting close to the people, being near to the people, empathising with the people, and getting what I call street data,” added Speid.

Speid was born and raised in Windsor Castle, 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.

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

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

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