Williams says Mayne under pressure in St Ann SW
Published:Sunday | July 13, 2025 | 12:07 AM
Prospective candidate for the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) in St Ann South Western, Danishka Williams, believes her campaign to bring entertainment zones and improved infrastructure to the constituency has put incumbent Zavia Mayne on the back foot.
Speaking to PNP supporters in Cave Valley last Friday night, Williams said she has “pinned” Mayne down in the constituency her party lost in the 2016 and 2020 general elections.
“Comrades, the signal clear, clear seh time come and it has never been clearer than now. I have a two-term MP (Member of Parliament) pinned down. Him can’t lef’ him office. From January him on the ground and him don’t leave him office because time come and the people are ready for change in South West St Ann,” she said.
Williams criticised Mayne, who she said protested in 2015 over poor road conditions in the Gibraltar Division when he was the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) caretaker candidate, but has not fixed the roadway now that he has been in office.
“So what we have is a man who is profiling with his position, and if you have anybody who going to work for nine years and them can’t show the work that them do, it is time for them to leave the work and give somebody else that job,” the MP aspirant said.
She said if elected, she intends to transform a section of Cave Valley into and entertainment zone for people in the sector who are affected by early police lock-offs.
Williams lamented what she said are the poor conditions of the markets in Alexandria and Cave Valley, calling them non-operational, while criticising Mayne, who, she said, lacks vision.
She committed to developing the markets, claiming that farmers in the constituency travel to Brown’s Town in the neighbouring constituency of St Ann North Western, Coronation Market in downtown Kingston, and Montego Bay to sell their produce.
Added to that, she said students are leaving the two high schools located in the constituency uncertain of a future, arguing that the HEART/NSTA Trust that had previously operated Armadale has shuttered.
“There is somebody here who does not have a vision for education and I will ensure that we have training facilities for our young people to know that when they leave high school them have somewhere else to go. Them don’t have to sit in a bar and them don’t have to sit on the road. We are focused on developing education in South West St Ann,” Williams said.
She said in tandem with road infrastructure in the constituency, a proper water system is lacking.
According to Williams, Mayne and the JLP has been “dangling” black water tanks as luxury, declaring that she intends to move the constituency away from this.
She did not give details on how this would be done.
Still, she said the pulse in the constituency is signalling victory for her and the PNP emphasising that there is a marked difference her and Mayne.
“The difference between me and him is that I am here every day; him deh a Stony Hill. Me and him is not the same. Me and my opponent are not the same. I am here to represent you. He is here for what he can get from you. We are not the same.
“Comrades, we see the writing on the wall and it is clear that time come. The time has come not just for a PNP Government but for South West St Ann. We’ve been in the wilderness here and we know that we deserve better … ,” she said, declaring that improved access to housing is among her plans.