PNP not dead, Homer Davis warns Labourites
Published:Tuesday | October 24, 2023 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Homer Davis, the deputy general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for Area Council Four, has urged Labourites to turn out in large numbers to cast ballots in the upcoming local government election, as he anticipates a strong challenge from the opposition People’s National Party (PNP).
“Let me remind you that this local government election will be one of the hardest-fought elections that we have since 1980,” Davis said as he addressed the Brompton divisional conference in St Elizabeth on Sunday.
“I want you to take [note of] that. It won’t be an easy local government election, because the PNP are able to rile up their base, and you will see them out there in their numbers. They are not dead; they are there,” he added.
Jamaica last held a local government election in 2016. The next election, which was due in 2020, has been postponed multiple times and is now set to be held before the end of February 2024.
Davis said that, in Area Council Four which comprises Trelawny, St James, Hanover, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth, he has dispatched all of the governing party’s potential candidates to the hills, valleys, and trenches, to mend fences and woo electors.
“From tomorrow morning, every councillor candidate must hit the road. All who you never used to talk to, you need to start talking to them. You need to do your analysis of your division. You need to know where your votes are, because, if you don’t, you will get lost on the day,” charged Davis.
“It is an election that you will have to stand up and fight for the Labour Party, because this Government has done so much in the last seven years for us to turn back what we have achieved,” Davis told party supporters.
Despite anticipating a tough battle, Davis said he is confident that, when the dust settles on election day, the JLP will be in control of all five municipal corporations in Area Council Four.
The JLP currently holds the majority in three of the municipalities – St Elizabeth, Trelawny and St James – with the PNP having the mayorship in Hanover and Westmoreland.
“What I want to tell my friends here in St Elizabeth is that we are going to win more seats than we won the last time in the local government elections. In the last local government elections in 2016, we won 37 of the 62 seats across the area council,” said Davis. “We won 13 of the 17 in St James, seven of the nine in Trelawny, three of the seven in Hanover, five of the 14 in Westmoreland, and nine of the 15 in St Elizabeth.”
Emphasising that the JLP will be seeking to wrest Hanover and Westmoreland from the PNP, Davis said, “It’s hard for members of parliament to operate when you don’t have the full complement of councillors and you don’t have the authority of the mayor in your parish.”
Placing supporters on election watch, he added, “Based on the utterances of our leader and prime minister, we are not going beyond February before we have a local government election. And, as far as I am concerned, we only have two months leave - I am not going to be counting October and, if we count November, you know how Christmas stays, that is December, the whole a we a run up and down try please everybody.
“I am saying to you that your work has just begun. It is not about shower, shower, shower. It is vote, vote, vote. Let us understand that,” Davis said.
The Brompton division in St Elizabeth South Western is currently represented by the JLP’s Whitney Smith-Currie in the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation.