Disgruntled JLP workers protest Western Westmoreland selection results

Placard-bearing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) workers staged a protest this morning against the results of Sunday’s internal selection process, in which incumbent Member of Parliament Morland Wilson lost to Dr Garfield James, councillor for the Sheffield Division in his constituency.

The protesters gathered outside Wilson’s constituency office in Mango Hall, near Little London, to express their disapproval of James.

“We are here because we are demonstrating because, in Western Westmoreland, we don't want Mr Garfield James. If it's not Mr Morland Wilson, we are not voting; we are not working,” said a female protester, armed with a placard, who was clad in a green shirt bearing the image of Wilson.

She warned that if the party does not allow Wilson to contest the seat in the next general election, workers will give their vote to the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) candidate, Ian Hayles.

“This seat is going to go independent or nothing at all. We will all take our vote to the other side. And we have told Dr [Horace] Chang this before, we’ve told the Prime Minister [Dr Andrew Holness], and we are very serious about it,” the disgruntled JLP supporter insisted.

Chang is the party’s general secretary, while Holness serves as the leader of the JLP.

“Mr James did not even win Sheffield, and that's the division he's responsible for. And we all know that if the Prime Minister doesn’t win his seat, he doesn’t have a say,” she added, arguing that James only won the division by one vote.

James crossed the floor of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in 2023, leaving the PNP to join the JLP.

Another dissatisfied female worker claimed that Wilson had been treated unfairly, and stated that she and others are not prepared to work with James.

“We are not working with Mr James; he came with an agenda to mash up the party. He came and has been working against us,” she declared.

On Sunday, the JLP Secretariat announced its intention to refer James to its Selection Committee and Central Executive as the party’s candidate for Western Westmoreland.

Chang expressed confidence that unity would prevail among JLP members in the constituency following the selection exercise.

He also reaffirmed his faith in the party’s candidate selection process, noting that it gives party workers and delegates an opportunity to have their voices heard. T

hat process, he said, involved a constituency audit, polling, consultation with workers and delegates, and a final selection exercise.

- Albert Ferguson

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