Can anybody stop Lisa?

THE REALIGNMENT of electoral boundaries in St Ann has resulted in the increase in the number of constituents in South East St Ann.

That should further tighten the People's National Party (PNP) grip on the seat it has won in all 11 parliamentary elections it has contested since the seat was created in 1959.

The PNP's Lisa Hanna is to face off with the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Oneil Esteen next Thursday.

The realignment sees the PNP-controlled Beecher Town division being moved from North East to South East St Ann.

A section of the Lime Hall division in North East has also been placed in the Claremont division in South East.

But South East has lost the Calderwood division to South West St Ann, with each of the four constituencies in the parish now having four divisions.

PNP councillor for Beecher Town division, Ian Bell, believes the changes will further solidify the South East seat for his party.

safer PNP seat

"Based on the realignment, it is cut in a way to secure North East as a safer JLP seat and South East as a safer PNP seat," Bell said.

One constituent, Natasha Williams of the Moneague division, believes the PNP will retain the seat even though much has not been done in the constituency over the last four years.

"As far as I see, she (Hanna) is going to win. Mi nuh feel she a go lose," said Williams, even as she argued that the constituency lacks two major institutions, another high school and a fire station.

"We need another high school in the constituency and it should be in Moneague," said Williams.

"We also need a fire station. There is a lot of land available where it could be built, there is land when you leave Moneague heading to Claremont," added Williams.

Along with Moneague and Claremont, other major towns in South East St Ann include Golden Grove and Beecher Town.

The economy of the constituency is based mostly on mining and agriculture.

The constituency has one ter-tiary institution, Moneague College, and one high school, Ferncourt, in Claremont.

The first contest for the South East St Ann seat in 1959 saw Dr Ivan Lloyd of the PNP (7,334) defeating the JLP's Flavius McKinley (1,584).

Lloyd also won in 1962 and 1967, defeating the JLP's Allan James and Cyril Atkinson, respectively.

After Lloyd resigned in 1969, Seymour Mullings contested for the PNP in the subsequent by-election, against Lloyd's son Garland Lloyd (JLP) and comfortably retained the seat for the PNP.

Mullings increased the majority for the PNP in subsequent elections, securing 7,116 votes to defeat the JLP's Cyril Atkinson (2,009 votes) in 1972; and 8,112 votes to defeat Hamilton Gill (2,667 votes) in 1976.

With a massive JLP victory nationally in 1980, Mullings still claimed the seat but with a vastly reduced majority.

With the PNP boycotting the 1983 snap elections, the seat was won by the JLP's Patricia Pink with 3,185 votes which was 2,000 fewer than Goldsmith received when he lost to Mullings three years before.

Independent candidates Charles Johnson (144) and Hugh Cammock, Independent (119) also contested the seat in 1983.

Mullings returned to his own way in 1989 winning by 5,766 votes. In 1993 and again in 1997 he also won by more than 5,000 votes.

In what was then considered a safe seat, Aloun N'dombet Assamba succeeded Mullings for the 2002 elections and continued the PNP dominance by beating the JLP's Peter Fakhourie.

In 2007, political newcomer Lisa Hanna replaced Assamba and extended the PNP's undefeated run in the constituency, with Fakhourie again on the losing end.

In the 2007 elections, there were 17,651 persons on the voters list. Voter turnout was 66.3 per cent, or 11,705.

With the realignment, the number of persons on the voters' list in South East St Ann has increased to 27,029.

rural@gleanerjm.com