Look out MPs, the eyes are watching you

Tuesday, September 08, 2015, Source

If anyone doubted that democracy is alive and well in the Jamaican political arena, he should take a good look at what has been happening with regard to the selection of candidates for a general election which is constitutionally due in February 2017, but which from all indications could be held by December of this year.

Unless something unforeseen occurs in coming weeks, the process has seen the first casualty of democracy at work, some would say a candidate asleep, what with the loss suffered by incumbent Member of Parliament for Portland Eastern, Dr Lynvalle Bloomfield. The goodly Cuban-trained medical professional was narrowly beaten by attorney-at-law Ms Andrea Moore in a delegate selection held at the Port Antonio High School on Sunday.

It is not a done deal yet that Moore will succeed Dr Bloomfield as the next People's National Party candidate, but it seems most likely. There have been numerous complaints levelled at the feet of Dr Bloomfield that he had not been doing enough to lift his constituents from the squalor in which many of them exist. A majority of the party's delegates in that constituency seemed to be of that view too.

It appears that Ms Moore, who ran previously, unsuccessfully, in the St Andrew West Rural constituency, will get the nod, but a critical message here for her — assuming that she goes forward — is that the people of the constituency are watching. With political analysts believing that the country could see less than 50 per cent of the approximately 1.8 million voters eligible to participate in the next election actually doing so, Ms Moore, like others going forward, would be well advised to sharpen up and pay closer attention to the plight of the people.

One member of Parliament who can count his lucky stars is Mr Hugh Buchanan, the incumbent in St Elizabeth South Western, who narrowly fought off a surge by Mr Ewan Stephenson. We have heard reports from that constituency that Mr Buchanan's stewardship is anything but good and effective. We hope that, for his sake, and certainly his constituents, he will use the opportunity to pull his socks up and serve the interest of the people in a better way.

Other contests are pending, and one that we await with bated breath is that in St Elizabeth North Eastern between challenger Mr Evon Redman, and the sitting Member of Parliament Mr Raymond Pryce. The stakes are high here and there has been a level of nastiness that has marred the entire situation. We hope that the matter will be settled, finally, this weekend as the party has promised.

Another minister, Ms Lisa Hanna, is also facing a challenge, and across the political divide, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party also has its share of ballot fights, one of which we thought would have been decided already. That, of course, is the showdown in St Catherine West Central, where Senator Christopher Tufton is leading a defence against councillor for the Point Hill Division of the St Catherine Parish Council, Mr Devon Wint, and attorney-at-law Mr Kent Gammon, whom we are told does not really have a good chance.

We await the results of the other challenges, but whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: No MP can now sit on his laurels and merely go through the motions of managing his constituency. From what we have seen so far, there are several eyes looking for an opportunity to pounce.