PNP supporters want candidate selected for Central St Catherine
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – People’s National Party (PNP) supporters in Central St Catherine have called for a caretaker/candidate to be immediately selected to represent the constituency, if the party is to have any hope of victory in the JLP-dominated constituency in the upcoming general elections, constitutionally due next year.
“Up to now we are not able to say who is going to represent us even at this late stage, and it is causing us great concern because this constituency is dominated by the JLP which is not giving us the kind of representation we want,” said a Spanish Town businessman, who called himself a concerned comrade.
“. We want a change but we want someone who is willing to work and give us the representation we need. Therefore, it is important that we get to know who is the candidate because we will not accept anyone that party headquarters push down our throat. We want to get to know and meet the candidate we are supporting,” said the businessman, who requested anonymity.
However, former PNP Youth Organisation vice-chairman, Rohan Silvera, a contractor, has declared that he has been the party’s caretaker and has been working assiduously in the constituency for the past year.
But PNP deputy general secretary Julian Robinson said Silvera is one of two aspirants who have expressed interest in representing the constituency which is currently held by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Olivia “Babsy” Grange. No representative, he said, has been selected. The other person is Harvey Small.
“.Silvera has been working there for sometime, but none of them have been confirmed. A decision will be made next week,” Robinson said.
Both Silvera and Small have been involved in local government politics.
Silvera was a candidate in the 2003 local government elections in the Hampton Green Division, Spanish Town, but lost to Teresa Turner of the JLP.
Harvey was the sitting councillor for the Waterford Division in Portmore but was defeated in the 2003 election.
Silvera, in the meantime, insisted that he was selected as the PNP caretaker/candidate in April. “I was the only person who applied to the party to represent the constituency, no one else had applied and I was interviewed by the party,” he said.
When asked whether he was told that he was accepted as the candidate, Silvera replied, “I was not told in so many words but the fact that I was the only applicant, the only person who was interested… I am recognised as the selectee for the constituency. That’s how the party refer to me as the selectee,” he said.
Harvey, a businessman, could not be reached yesterday for comment.
The Central St Catherine constituency has been held by the JLP for the past 26 years. Grange won the seat in 1997, when she beat then National Democratic Movement president Bruce Golding, who had won the seat on a JLP ticket.
The last time the PNP won the constituency was with Derick Heaven as their candidate in 1976.
PNP candidates who have contested the Central St Catherine constituency and lost include president of the Race Horses Trainers Association Vincent Edwards, 1989; businessman Clinton “Jingles” Davy, 1993; Hugh Perrin, 1997; and Homer White in 2002.