While most candidates in the September 3, 2025 General Election were celebrating victory, some for the first time, and others were left broken by defeat, three stood out for their unbroken streak of electoral losses.

People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Joseph Witter has contested the polls six times and lost each time; the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Newton Amos has contested the polls three times, only to fall short each time; while, the PNP’s Joan Gordon Webley, who served as MP for St Andrew East Rural from 1980 to 1983, has, since then, repeatedly failed in her attempts to return to Gordon House.

The PNP’s Patricia Duncan Sutherland also contested the 2016 and 2020 general elections and lost in both attempts. She suffered another loss this year when she went up against Fayval Williams in St Andrew Eastern.

Joseph Witter

Witter first entered the political arena in 2002 as a PNP candidate for Kingston Western, taking on then-JLP leader Edward Seaga. His début ended in a resounding defeat, losing by a staggering margin of 2,099 votes to Seaga’s 11,251. In 2005, a by-election was called after Seaga stepped down as JLP leader, with Bruce Golding assuming both the party leadership and the Kingston Western seat. Witter tried again, but the result was another decisive loss, garnering just 601 votes to Golding’s 4,758.

Undeterred, Witter contested the seat once more in the 2007 General Election against Golding. He lost again. Witter stepped aside in 2011, allowing Earl Dawkins to contest, but Dawkins fell to Desmond McKenzie, who had taken over the seat following Golding’s departure.

Witter returned in 2016, only to be defeated by McKenzie. He tried for a comeback in 2020, and again in the 2025 general elections, but both attempts ended in defeat, cementing his place in Kingston Western’s history as a relentless perennial loser.

Newton Amos

A former senior superintendent of police, Amos has contested the St Catherine North Western seat on a JLP ticket three times and has faced three different opponents but he has never been successful.

His first attempt was in the 2016 General Election when he went up against the PNP’s Robert Pickersgill. Amos secured 6,097 votes to Pickersgill’s 7,104.

He made his second attempt at the seat in the 2020 General Election against Hugh Graham of the PNP. Though the JLP had won the election with a landslide 49 seats to the PNP’s 14, Amos did not have the same luck as his fellow JLP candidates. He again lost the constituency by a small margin of 148 votes.

That loss, however, seemingly motivated Amos to make a third attempt at the seat, but he was once again defeated, this time by the PNP’s Damion Crawford.

Crawford increased the PNP’s margin of victory gaining 7,580 votes to Amos’s 4,855 votes.

Independent candidate Lloyd D Smith received 21 votes.

The Jamaica Labour Party’s Newton Amos has lost three general elections.

Joan Gordon Webley

At just 28 years old, Joan Gordon Webley made history as the youngest woman ever elected to Parliament, winning the St Andrew East Rural seat on a JLP ticket in the 1980 General Election. She defeated the PNP’s Lloyd Stultz with an overwhelming margin of 10,434 votes to 6,423.

She retained the seat in the 1983 snap election which was uncontested by the PNP.

But her political fortune soon began to wane. In the 1989 General Election, Gordon Webley lost the seat to the PNP’s Ginnard Barrett, who received 7,070 votes to her 6,686. After a long hiatus, she returned in 2007, contesting St Andrew South Eastern against the PNP’s Maxine Henry-Wilson. However, she fell short again, garnering 4,618 votes to Henry-Wilson’s 5,187.

Gordon Webley made one final attempt on the JLP ticket in 2011, returning to St Andrew East Rural, but lost narrowly to Damion Crawford by just over 300 votes.

Three years later she switched to the PNP, but the defeats continued. In 2020, running against the JLP’s Juliet Holness in St Andrew East Rural, Gordon Webley received 7,104 votes to Holness’s 9,459.

Undeterred, she switched constituencies once more in 2025, contesting St Andrew West Rural against the JLP’s Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn. The result was another loss — 7,235 votes to 8,414 — adding yet another chapter to a long, determined political journey.

The People’s National Party’s Joan Gordon Webley has lost five general elections in different constituencies.

Patricia Duncan Sutherland

In 2016 Duncan Sutherland sought to take Clarendon South Eastern from the JLP incumbent Rudyard Spencer. However, she fell short and polled 1,780 votes to Spencer’s 2,440. When Spencer resigned and Pearnel Charles Jr took the reins, she again attempted to win the seat for the PNP.

Despite her familiarity with the constituency, she was no match for Charles Jr, who first secured the seat in a 2020 by-election uncontested by the PNP, and successfully defended it in the general election later that year. Charles polled a massive 10,227 votes to Duncan Sutherland’s 7,281.

With no luck in Clarendon, Duncan Sutherland journeyed to St Andrew Eastern, where she attempted to unseat Minister of Finance Fayval Williams, who first won the seat in 2016 and again in 2020. Like her previous attempts, Duncan Sutherland again faced defeat in the 2025 General Election. She polled 6,386 votes to Williams’ 6,824 in the preliminary count.

Patricia Duncan Sutherland has ran in three consecutive general elections since 2016, in two constituencies, and lost in all attempts.