Can PNP regain its foothold in St Ann SE?

By 9 a.m. on a typical day, Devon Duke*, a seasoned butcher at the Ocho Rios Market, would have cleaned and prepped over two dozen pigs for weekend sale. But last Wednesday, with fewer customers around, he had only managed six.

Not far away, also in the Claremont division, goat farmer Collin Rose was struggling to keep his animals alive.

Each day, the elderly farmer walks over a mile with his herd, weaving between pedestrians and motor vehicles along the deplorable roadway. At least two more times during the day, he must make that trek again – with buckets of water for the animals on one of those trips.

“The roads dem bad, man. If you turn so it bad. Dis yah one here bad ... . Even the main road you go pon, bad,” bemoaned Rose. “We don’t have much crime, but di water is a big problem. Dem just lock off di water pon you all the time.”

Without running water, his goats suffer from thirst by midday. When lock-offs last for days, he must fetch water from home – if there’s any left.

The issues stretch beyond livestock. In Barrett Hall, resident Sueann James has two options for garbage disposal: burn it, or carry it miles downhill through rocky terrain to a community skip. Taxi operators have abandoned some areas entirely due to the poor roads. But not Ryan ‘One Don’ Virgo, who took it upon himself last Wednesday to patch sections of the dreadful Coultart Grove main road, and joked “a better you nominate and vote for me as MP,” as he tossed marl into craters along the stretch.

Then, there is a general economic hardship that prevails in the mainly farming communities of the Garden Parish.

“Right now, me do business and that cut into half,” stressed Duke. “I usually kill 25 hogs and see it there, is only six yah now from morning. The people dem just don’t have any money.”

He recalls when customers would buy extra pounds of meat without hesitation.

“One time a man used to come into the market and order five pounds of meat. If you cut it and it weigh six, him seh go ahead. But now, he is telling you to cut off the extra pound because if him buy it him can’t buy a piece of yam,” Duke told The Sunday Gleaner.

CLAIMS OF NEGLECT

Duke, echoing community sentiment, accused the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) of neglecting the area due to its People’s National Party (PNP) leanings.

“No money not trickling down to the likkle man. So certain concerns that we have, we just have to wait and see,” he said, putting much hope on PNP prospective candidate Dr Kenneth Russell, who could face-off with the Jamaica Labour Party’s Adion Peart for the seat in the upcoming polls.

Peart was recently defeated in an internal run-off for Manchester Southern and has reportedly turned his attention to St Ann South Eastern – a traditionally strong PNP seat where margins have plunged in the last few elections.

Duke does not believe outgoing Member of Parliament Lisa Hanna did enough for the constituency during her four terms, having held the seat since 2007.

In August 2022, Hanna announced that she would not be seeking re-election. Her tenure was marked by tension with party councillors, who cited disrespect and blamed her for internal disarray. But with Hanna heading through the door, Ian Bell, the PNP councillor for the Beecher Town Division, sees a reset under way – as long as Russell “takes telling”.

“The constituency is the largest geographical constituency in the Caribbean, and as a result of that, it needs a person who is committed and dedicated. [Russell] is a man of the soil. He is from the Bensonton division, and the people in the area are just anxiously waiting for him to be elected so he can deliver,” Bell told The Sunday Gleaner.

“He has already begun to put things in place for us to have a very close-knit relationship. We would have already indicated to him that what we want for the people of South East is the best. Having been so committed to the People’s National Party, they deserve only the best.”

The PNP has been losing its foothold in the constituency in recent years, recording only 31 votes more than the JLP in the 2020 general election – a sharp drop from the 3,265-vote margin in 2016. Still, Bell is confident in a PNP resurgence, predicting a landslide victory for Russell later this year.

“The trend has been set in the last local government election where we swept all four divisions handsomely. The Beecher Town Division was won by 910 extra [votes], the Moneague Division by 845 extra, the Claremont Division by over 500 extra, and the Bensonton division was won by over 300-plus extra. That is a clear indication that the people of South Eastern St Ann are up and ready for the date.”

Yet for the teachers and children of Beecher Town Primary, hope feels distant. The school lacks fencing and security, and students are crammed into incomplete buildings without windows or doors. When it rains, they suffer. At night, stray animals and vagrants roam the compound.

“To be honest, Mr Bell tries very hard and we have several private entities who we call and beg support from time to time. But it is these same people that we keep calling, so we really need some serious help from whichever government comes in,” noted Principal Sharlene Bailey, telling The Sunday Gleaner that the school is still reeling from damage caused by storms last year.

“Parental support is also an issue,” she noted.

TRANSPORTATION CONCERNS FOR SCHOOL

Golden Grove All-Age School in the Moneague Division is also facing its fair share of challenges.

“One of our major concerns is the transportation of our students to school and the deficiencies of the road infrastructure,” noted Principal Jason Simpson.

“Golden Grove is in a mining community and so it is heavily traversed by trucks and large vehicles and our school is smack in the middle of that operation. So it’s a challenge for commuters as well as with the dust nuisance that comes with the operation in the area,” explained Simpson, listing a paved schoolyard among their urgent needs.

In the town of Moneague, poor roads and water-supply issues again emerged as challenges for residents and business operators. So, too, did the lack of adequate security, job opportunities, and recreational activities for the youth.

Paulette Groves* said that without these, there remains the risk that her bar will be broken into for a fourth time in recent years.

“As close as I am to the police station, the boy them still broke into my bar. I lost about $70,000 in cash, all of my top-shelf liquor, and all of my music appliances dem the last time,” she said, noting that the crooks last struck in the latter part of 2024. “So I think that if the youths dem have more job opportunities and playing fields, like football grounds, I think we will have less of these things.”

*Names changed on request.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com