BETHEL TOWN, Westmoreland – Though there has been a ripple of discomfort, it appears some Comrades in the constituency of Westmoreland Eastern are willing to give the People’s National Party (PNP’s) General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell a chance. The often controversial medical doctor was selected as the party’s standard-bearer for the constituency even though he is not from the area and two other party members eyeing the seat had been working on the ground.

For Roy Alwood, who is convinced the PNP will win the seat no matter who runs, it all boils down to which candidate will more likely be in a position to help the constituency if the party forms the next government.

“The man who can get a better position in the ministry, I think we will have a better [result] than the man who is going to go to the back bench and sit down,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Alwood thinks PNP President Mark Golding would be inclined to appoint Dr Campbell to a ministerial position if the party regains power.

“To me, Dayton is the better one without a doubt because I know that he must get some ministry to run. Once a man is in a ministry, he is supposed to can do more than the man who sits at the back bench,” Alwood reasoned.

PNP Region Six Chairman Colin Hitchman, who is also from the constituency, agreed.

“Dr Campbell is a national figure and the people are really impressed. They are saying that they would like a national figure to represent them…The candidates who were campaigning, they had their supporters also and some persons would like to have their candidate elected but it is part of politics and it takes time,” Hitchman told Observer West.

He explained that the two aspirants — medical doctor Glenville Hall and educator Ricardo Gordon — did not get enough votes in an internal poll done over the summer. As a result, Hitchman said, Golding selected Dr Campbell who was later ratified in the party’s executive meeting held Monday night. He said there has been no major issue after news broke that Campbell had officially been given the nod.

This was in stark contrast to the furore that accompanied the process by which Ian Hayles ended up as the candidate for Westmoreland Western. The fallout from that dragged on for months and saw the PNP lose its grip on the parish’s municipal corporation after two comrades — Ian Myles and Garfield James — crossed the floor and later became members of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. Among the many concerns raised was the fact that Hayles was seen as an outsider.

For Alwood, it is unimportant if the candidate is from the area. He cited the success of former Prime Minister PJ Patterson who was the MP for Westmoreland Eastern from 1993 until he retired in 2006.

“PJ wasn’t from this constituency. PJ came in and did a lot. Luther [Buchanan] was here and he did not do much. So it doesn’t matter if a man comes from here or there. If he comes to work, he is going to work,” he argued. “If a man comes and doesn’t do good, he knows that he is going to get voted out.”

In the September 2020 General Election, Buchanan lost to the JLP’s Daniel Lawrence by 11 votes following a magisterial recount after the seat was initially declared for Buchanan.

For party stalwart Theodore Williams who stressed that his commitment to the PNP remains solid, he would have preferred a different approach to Dr Campbell’s selection.

“I am not against them sending out Dr Campbell and I’m not against them sending out the young man. My only issue is that I don’t like how they handle the thing. Because it was yesterday that I sat where I am sitting now and one of my friends called me from over Hanover and told me that Dayton was coming [instead of] this young man,” stated Williams.

“So I said no. I mean, I can’t see how they would shift things like that when the young man was publicised. If they knew that he was not qualified, why take him up? And if they knew Dayton was the right man, why did they not just put him in?” he questioned.

He said rumours began to swirl, from as far back as last September when Buchanan resigned as constituency chairman, that Dr Campbell would fill the void left.

“That means it is something planned,” argued Williams.