PNP’s Waul denies JLP sweep in St Catherine South West

Keith Knight (Old Harbour North), Steve Graham (Old Harbour Central) and Mark O’Connor (Church Pen) all held on to their seats for the governing JLP, while People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Dr Kurt Waul dethroned Lloyd Grant to claim Old Harbour South.

Across the parish, however, the PNP were dominant, winning 23 divisions in total compared to the JLP’s 18. With this the PNP will continue to control the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, as well as the Portmore Municipal Corporation after current holder Leon Thomas defeated Markland Edwards for the mayoral seat.

There were many twists and subplots going into this election and the results in some battlegrounds played out true to form.

The country will have to wait a bit longer for the final results though, after both party presidents – Mark Golding and Prime Minister Andrew Holness – declared that they have won.

Holness, speaking at the JLP’s Belmont Road headquarters, said they have won seven municipalities, with the PNP winning four. The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation and the Clarendon Municipal Corporation are currently tied and will most likely go to a magisterial recount.

Golding, on the other hand, argued that the PNP has won the popular vote, securing more divisional seats nationally. Data from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) revealed that 303,862 Jamaicans voted for the PNP, while 282,543 affirmed in favour of the JLP.

Overall the ECJ has declared 102 divisional seats for the PNP and 95 for the JLP.

The JLP’s ambitions to claim a second clean sweep of all four divisions in southwest St Catherine was not to be as Waul threw a spanner in their wheel.

Waul’s popularity in the south was self-evident for the last four years and was very much on show on election day, winning by almost 400 votes to unseat Grant, who was the minority leader for the JLP in the St Catherine Municipal Corporation.

Graham with 1,769 votes beat back the challenge of the PNP’s Obryan Leighton and independent candidate Esworth ‘Kojack’ Frankson to retain the Old Harbour Central Division. Leighton received 1,295 votes while Frankson captured 143 votes.

Leighton was gracious in defeat, saying “lost the election but grateful for every single 1,295 who voted for me. Gave it my everything with little or nothing, forever the word is love”.

In Old Harbour North, Knight had to dig very deep to stave off a stubborn Adrian Samuda of the PNP. With this win Knight has secured a second successive term as the people’s elected councillor for the division after polling 2,135 votes to Samuda’s 1,917. Twenty-six voters casted their ballots in favour of independent candidate Gerval Weir, who had won the Church Pen Division on a JLP ticket in 2002.

Samuda later posted on social media “They could have only stop the movement for better by 218 votes. Well done my team. Thanks to all who voted for better. Love to all my people”.

The ECJ must respond to criticism for failing to provide real time results live on its website despite having a $1.2 billion budget.

In a time where the world is predominantly driven by real time technology voters were left frustrated as they had to wait for long hours to know the outcome in their respective divisions.

And even after midnight no official count was available for Waul and O’Connor despite information from both camps that they have won convincingly.

With half an hour before midnight Waul embarked on a motorcade in Old Harbour Bay to celebrate his first victory in representational politics after entering the fray in 2020.

“Y’all did it,” he wrote on his Facebook page “so let’s celebrate it together as you did for me to represent you. Thanks to everyone.

“I will continue to represent and build my home town. Old Harbour Bay thank you so much.”

At the break of dawn the next day, it was confirmed by the ECJ that O’Connor and Waul had indeed won their seats.

Waul polled 371 more votes than Grant with 2003 voters supporting his challenge, while 1,632 voted for the outgoing councillor.

O’Connor’s stranglehold on Church Pen proved too strong in the end for Ho, as he extended the JLP’s decades-old grip with a 2,222 to 1,506 votes win.

In a shocking result in the Ginger Ridge Division in St Catherine West Central, political heavyweight and wily veteran John Wilson of the PNP was unseated by the JLP’s Jeremiah Edwards. At the end of the ECJ’s preliminary count of 2,022 ballots, Wilson polled 1,005, while 1,017 people backed Edwards for one of the narrowest of victories throughout the entire election.

The ECJ will commence a recount of all divisional seats with the final official results expected to be announced tomorrow at the earliest. Where a magisterial recount is required to determine the outcome of a particular seat, such result will take much longer given the process that must be followed.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated.