JLP supporters celebrate party’s victory in St Mary, St Ann
It was a jubilant mood in South West St Ann on Thursday night into Friday morning as Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters not only celebrated the return of their party to power, but the return of that constituency to the party.
Supporters of Member of Parliament in waiting for St Ann South Western Zavia Mayne who won with 6992 votes over the People’s National Party candidate Keith Walford’s 6872 votes were ecstatic at his victory.
JLP MPs now have two of the four constituencies in St Ann with St Ann South West returning to the party which had held that seat for many years. Shahine Robinson, the other JLP representative, held off the PNP’s Desmond Gilmore to retain the St Ann North East, seat. The PNP’s Dr Dayton Campbell and Lisa Hanna represent the other two constituencies in the parish, South Eastern and North Western St Ann, respectively
“The people feel a sense of calm and security returning to South West. They have a leader who can be their voice when they need to be heard,” a member of Mayne’s campaign team told the Observer North East.
“Deliverance has come to us. We were not being represented. We had a candidate who used to hide from parliament, hid at the back,” she continued.
Supporters of Mayne said they are confident he will provide them with ‘proper representation’.
“Mi glad he win man,” another supporter said.
Meanwhile, some people said they are pleased with the close margins by which seats were won as this will remind political representatives that they cannot be complacent.
“When they see how close it is, then they will work,” one man said, adding that this should be a lesson to both JLP and PNP representatives.
Meanwhile JLP supporters in St Mary were also in a jubilant mood after two of the three constituency seats in the parish were won by the party in the recent general election.
Prior to the February 25 poll, all three constituencies had members of parliament from the People’s National Party (PNP), however, only Dr Morais Guy managed to retain his St Mary Central seat after staving off a defeat from the JLP’s candidate Jason James.
Robert Montague and Dr Norman Dunn created major upsets unseating Joylan Silvera and Dr Winston Green respectively.
