FORMER Member of Parliament for St Catherine East Central Arnaldo Brown has endorsed People’s National Party candidate Zuleika Jess for the Central Clarendon seat.

Brown says he believes that Jess has the ability to unseat and send into retirement incumbent MP Mike Henry who has held a tight grip on the constituency for close to four decades.

Brown likened Jess’ campaign to that of a young Portia Simpson Miller who, in 1976, did the unthinkable, and won her seat, when no one expected her to win.

“Zuleika has taken May Pen and Central Clarendon by storm and with a steely determination, her focus is singularly, victory,” said Brown.

The Numbers

Brown went on to state that based on the numbers from the General Election in 2016, Jess had more than a fighting chance.

“In 2016 only 38.75 per cent of the voting population of 29,963 eligible electors came out to vote. Mike Henry, the incumbent, took 69.4 per cent of the eligible votes at 8,053, and his opponent captured a mere 29.8 per cent of the eligible electors, registering 3494 votes. That means that 61.25 per cent of the eligible voters did not come out to vote,” said Brown.

“If Jess is able to convince the non-voters that change is possible in Central Clarendon, and if the young voters who are on the voters’ list are activated thus giving her the chance, then Mike Henry is on his way to retirement,” added Brown

No Safe Seat

Brown also cited the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) recent pronouncement that safe seats were a thing of the past.

“The JLP has been making the argument that there is no safe seat. They use East Portland as an example of PNP safe seat flipping. Well, it cannot be that only the PNP seats are in danger of flipping,” argued Brown.

“If this argument is to hold that there are no more safe seats, then Central Clarendon has all the elements of a seat that is susceptible to flipping,” added Brown.

Jess said that if elected one of the first things on her to do list is to open an agro processing facility in Denbigh.