Veteran parliamentarian Pearnel Charles has been missing from several of the major platform meetings being held by his Jamaica Labour Party in recent days, but his message to party supporters is: Don’t read too much into it.

Charles told the Jamaica Observer that he has been busy looking after the needs of his people in Clarendon North Central, as he prepares to go up against the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) first-time candidate Dr Desmond Brennan, a medical doctor.

“Put it this way, I am on a campaign no different than I am used to. When I’m campaigning I take the message to the people and that is what I am doing now,” Charles stated.

The challenges, Charles said, were many, as he suggested that Government operatives were making it difficult for him to achieve some of his targets by not giving him the kind of support that he needs as the people’s representative.

“In my constituency, the PNP has carried out the most vicious victimisation of me and the people of North Central Clarendon. Only 40 per cent of the people of the constituency have any water from the substantial source. People have to buy water from $300 to $400 a drop,” he said.

“I am the only MP that I know of now, who has a water truck that distributes water to every person in my constituency, regardless of their political affiliation, religion, race or age group … free water. I am the only one and I made the investment based on a piece of truck that I acquired that I have spent millions of dollars on to fix. And what has the Government done? The PNP candidate has complained to the National Water Commission and to the Government that I am giving away water free to the people which is causing him a political problem in his campaign.

He alleged that in repsponse the Government has instructed the NWC to not supply water to his truck. “We are buying the water, and now to supply us with no water, the truck cannot operate. How can a Government with a heart do that? Is not PNP water or JLP water, it is water for the people, because there is no water substantially, there is no water in the major parts of this constituency. So we have a problem of victimisation,” Charles asserted.

The Observer was unable to verify the claim made by Charles with minister with responsibility for water Robert Pickersgill.

Charles, 79, said that the move had caused him undue embarrassment, as for years he has been “begging” the Government to improve water supply in areas like Cooksland River, Pennants, Chapelton, Mocho, Woodhall and surrounding areas. Water supply, he said, was his main priority.

“We don’t have water for at least 60 per cent of the population. The candidate that is running against me is blaming me and saying he’ll make water come here in a few weeks. Well, I don’t know what is meant by that.

“I hope that in a change of Government I’ll be able to bring some benefits to the people, taking note that for the last 26 years, the JLP has been in office for only four of those, while the PNP has been in for 22. Yet, the PNP candidate here is blaming me, not blaming the Government… blaming me. He has been a member of the PNP for all that time and he has never opened his mouth to say a thing on behalf of those he is now promising that in a few weeks he will bring sun, moon and star to the constituency,” Charles said.

Word in some circles is that Dr Brennan was mounting a stern challenge and breathing down Charles’s neck, but Charles, a former Cabinet minister who has served as MP for the constituency since 2002, scoffed at the prospect of being defeated.

“New bird nuh know hurricane. I don’t know that he is gaining ground. He’s going to certain districts and asking people what I have done for them. The people will answer him by saying that I have been able to assist them by what the Government allocates to me.

“So I am prepared and I’m working to move the people from poverty to a more prosperous life. Too many of our people are poor. It is almost embarrassing to see what is happening to the elderly and the very young in the society, and when you examine the programme presented by the Labour Party being led by young Andrew Holness, you will see that the possibilities are there.

“I reside in the constituency and the strategy is just to bring the message to the people and hope that they can make a balanced and clear choice,” Charles said. “I would hope that they have understood that I have done all that I can and if more could be done, it would be done. There is a major road programme taking place in the constituency and it has been thrown out. I am trying to find out why it has been suspended, from the contractor, but it is simple. The Government will use every effort to undermine me in the constituency.”

Charles also lashed the Government for the delay in completing the community centre at Pennants for the last six months, because, in his view, the Government did not want to open the facility before the election.