By Denise Clarke, Staff Reporter
Voters waiting in the rain at Flankers in Montego Bay, St. James .
WESTERN BUREAU:
MAJOR UPSETS were created in western Jamaica in Wednesday's general election when the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) snatched five seats in the region previously held by the People's National Party (PNP).
The PNP, which dominated the west by winning 14 of the 15 seats in the 1997 general election, yesterday lost North West St. James, West Central St. James, East Central St. James, Western Hanover and South Trelawny. The JLP's J.C. Hutchinson retained his seat in Northwest St. Elizabeth, defeating first-time candidate, the PNP's Stanley Redwood.
The JLP gained a crucial seat in East Central St. James, when deputy leader, Edmund Bartlett, won with 6,315 votes over the PNP's Donald Colomathi who got 5,117 votes. Bartlett had contested the seat in the 1997 election, but lost to the PNP's Violet Nielsen. Mr. Colomathi, a Councillor in the St. James Parish Council, was running for Member of Parliament for the first time. Cornel Cameron of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) received 24 votes.
In North West St. James, the JLP's Horace Chang, a medical doctor, defeated the PNP's Gordon Brown, winning by 8,820 votes to 6426. A strong contingent of Jamaica Defence Force soldiers and policemen kept gatherings from both political parties apart, as cheers erupted from the hundreds of JLP supporters who gathered outside the Montego Bay courthouse where the votes were being counted. A small group of PNP supporters slowly began to disperse when it became clear that their candidate had lost.
For Dr. Chang, it was his third time contesting the NW St. James seat. In 1993, he lost by 1687 votes to the PNP's Carl Miller. He lost again in 1997 by 1252 votes to former Tourism Minister Francis Tulloch.
Other candidates who contested the constituency were Appolone Reid of the NDM, who received 64 votes and independent candidate Ras Astor Black who got 30 votes. The results came after 146 of 158 ballot boxes were counted. The figures from the twelve remaining boxes were not included in the count, as there were no numbers written on them.
In West Central St. James, the PNP's Hugh Solomon, lost by 1159 votes to the JLP's Clive Mullings. Mullings, an attorney-at-law garnered 7047 votes, while Mr. Solomon, who is the Mayor of Montego Bay, received 5,888. Both men were contesting the parliamentary elections for the first time.
The NDM's Juan Reid got 47 votes. Outside the counting centre at the Granville All Age school, JLP supporters were in a festive mood as news spread that their candidate had won.
Devon McDaniel of the JLP grabbed 5,126 votes to beat the PNP's Doreen Chen in South Trelawny. Mrs. Chen, who became Member of Parliament after winning the seat in the 1997 election, only managed to get 3710 votes. Independent candidate Jeffrey Johnson received 35 votes.
In Western Hanover, the JLP's Barrington Gray edged the PNP's Lloyd Hill, to win with 5744 votes. Hill, who got 5073 votes, is currently the Mayor of Lucea and was contesting the parliamentary elections for the first time. The United Peoples Party (UPP) candidate, Winston Malcolm, got 23 votes.
