ST JAMES, Jamaica — Incumbent Member of Parliament for the St James East Central constituency, Edmund Bartlett of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is oozing much confidence that he will not only win the seat for the fifth consecutive time, but also increase his margin of victory over the 2016 election.

Bartlett, who will be going up against Michael Hemmings of the People’s National Party (PNP) in 2016, won the seat by a handsome margin of 2,348 to get by Noel Donaldson, who represented the PNP.

“I think this will be five in a row. I am expecting that the results will confirm my re-election as Member of Parliament for this constituency. The campaign has been a good one, the response has been excellent,” he said after voting at the Barrett Town Primary School this morning.

He added: “This year we should exceed that (2,348 margin) providing the turn out meets our expectation.”

Bartlett touted that his expected victory will be hinged on his performance in the constituency since 2002.

“We are satisfied that the performance over the years, the projects we have completed, the way in which we made families feel like human beings; the way we made people feel that they have hope and the view and hope of prosperity still looms, even under difficult times with the COVID-19 pandemic as we have it. So we are satisfied that the work has been done we are now just waiting on the results,” he said.

He also expressed satisfaction that the COVID-19 protocols are being observed at polling stations across the constituency even as the screening of individuals ahead of entering the polling stations has caused some amount of delay and a turn off for some voters.

“I think that the protocols have been observed, the social distancing has been maintained; it has caused a slowing of the process and we are hoping that it is not slow to the point of frustrating some. But two PDs (polling divisions) this morning we learnt that people who had to go to work felt a little pushed for time and some left to come back and that’s a constraint and one that I hope will not be strong enough to influence the voter turnout out today,” Bartlett argued.

Horace Hines