WITHORN, Westmoreland – A marching band and colourful parades characterised yesterday’s nomination day here, as two candidates entered the race to fill the Cornwall Mountain division of the Westmoreland Parish Council, left vacant by former People’s National Party (PNP) councillor Michael Smith, who died last month.

The two – the PNP’s Bernard Vanriel, 63, a former councillor for the Petersfield and Cornwall Mountain divisions and the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Keith Barnes, who is also a former councillor for the Cornwall Mountain division – will do battle for the 6,976 electors on the list for the July 14 poll.

The participation of senior officials of both political parties was unusually very high for a parish council by-election.

At about 12 noon, sounds of a marching band echoed down the Withorn main road towards the nomination centre at the Coke’s View Primary School.

Soon after scores of orange-clad PNP supporters joined the band as they danced and sang and followed their candidate and a number of party officials, including party leader Portia Simpson Miller; general secretary, Peter Bunting; PNP chairman, Robert Pickersgill; vice-president emeritus and MP for Central Westmoreland, Roger Clarke, as well as MPs Luther Buchanan and Dr Wykeham Mc Neil, to the entrance of the school compound.

The police allowed only the candidate, the parliamentarians, other PNP officials and their security to enter the centre.

After Vanriel was nominated the comrades trickled out of the centre and joined their supporters outside and then marched up to their campaign office, not too far from the Withorn square.

The JLP’s team arrived at the centre shortly after 1:00 pm accompanied by the sound of ringing bells, blaring music and shouts of “shower” by labourites dressed in various shades of green.

Among those accompanying Barnes were JLP general secretary, Karl Samuda; party chairman, Dr Kenneth Baugh; deputy leaders Horace Chang and James Robertson; agriculture minister, Dr Christopher Tufton; and former MPs Russel Hammond and Barrington Gray.

After returning officer Irving Green was satisfied that Barnes was duly nominated, the labourites left the centre and joined their supporters outside where they danced and sang before making their way to the party’s campaign office.

Meanwhile, both camps say they are taking the by-election “very serious” and have expressed confidence in winning the division.

“We can’t afford not to take this (by-election) seriously; in fact we take all of them seriously,” Pickersgill said.

He added that the party’s hierarchy stands ready to lend support to Vanriel’s campaign if it is called upon to do so by his campaign team.

For his part, Samuda said the party would be putting in place its “well-oiled” political machinery which he said is “unmatched by anything” in the past.

“We are confident that we will be victorious and we will be moving across the division to make sure that our candidate is known by all the electors,” said Samuda.

The PNP won all of the 14 parish council divisions in Westmoreland in the December 2007 local government elections.

At that time, Barnes lost the Cornwall Mountain division – which he had won in the 2003 local government polls by 19 votes – by a majority of 76 votes to the PNP’s Smith.