Warmington crushes Waul in landslide JLP win

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) incumbent polled 11,185 votes to Dr Kurt Waul’s 6,084 for the People’s National Party (PNP). Independent candidate Upton Blake received 51 votes.

Warmington's massive win added to the JLP’s landslide victory in securing a second consecutive term in which it won 49 of the 63 parliamentary seats amid low voter turnout during a health pandemic.

In a contest between two natives of the constituency, Waul, a medical doctor by profession, was expected to put up a sterner challenge.

But the huge euphoria that surrounded him up until the ballots were counted came tumbling down like mortar bricks. At 43, Waul has plenty of years ahead of him in politics and will hopefully learn from this difficult lesson. 

In Warmington, Waul simply found an opponent who has only lost once in seven contested elections in this constituency dating back to 1980 and a political veteran who certainly knows the game and how to deliver victory.

And also in what he declared to be his last contested election, Warmington will have his wish of bowing out of representational politics as a champion. He will now seek to oversee the completion of the constituency’s ‘legacy projects’ in Big Pond, the Old Harbour Health Centre and the new high school at Colbeck.

Natalie Ho, a well-known PNP backer in the constituency said Warmington’s experience along with Holness’ national popularity proved impregnable to wrest the seat from the JLP.

“First let me congratulate Everald Warmington and his team, however, I’m so proud of Dr Kurt Waul. This was his first attempt running for MP and he gave it his best shot. I hope he stays with us and I’m confident he will come out a winner next time,” Ho, a native of the Church Pen Division said.

Devon Sayers, former president of the G2K St Catherine Chapter – the JLP youth affiliate group – said Warmington’s experience made a massive difference.

“He’s a candidate who knows politics, who knows that you win a seat not by you alone but having good quality workers and giving them the chance to do what they do best,” said Sayers, who also a former JLP candidate/caretaker for the Old Harbour North Division.

On the national front it was a political massacre inflicted by the Andrew Holness-led ‘Green Party’ against the might of its arch nemesis.

The political scalps of the PNP’s deputy leader Dr Fenton Ferguson, Peter Bunting, the man who narrowly lost to Peter Phillips in an internal leadership race, and Dayton Campbell all fell victim in the crosshairs of a JLP juggernaut firing from all angles. Lisa Hanna barely hangs on to win narrowly by 14 votes.

A period of mourning for the PNP has certainly commenced and with Phillips indicating that he will step down if the party fails to win the elections, there will be plenty soul searching not only among its ardent followers, but also a search for a new leader.

Holness on the other hand has been elevated among the political gods in this country, as he becomes only the second JLP leader and fourth prime minister to win two consecutive contested elections. He now has the kind of majority in parliament politicians crave for to fast-track policies he believes will improve the overall socio-economic landscape of the country.

Among those who exercised their democratic right, the message as to who they want to lead into the new term is overwhelming; and Holness seems most prepared to grab the opportunity with both hands.