THE BATTLE GROUND SEATS - West St Mary, Jolyan Silvera (PNP) vs Robert Montague (JLP)
Published:Tuesday | February 9, 2016 | 12:00 AM
2011 GENERAL ELECTION RESULT
CONSTITUENCY TOTALS
Jolyan Silvera - 9,693
Robert Montague - 9,466
Vote turnout: 59.54 per cent of 32,305 voters
Ballots rejected: 74
Western St Mary is one of seven seats won by the People's National Party (PNP) in the last general election by less than 300 votes.
Jolyan Silvera, the PNP candidate, won the seat by 227 votes in 2011, unseating Robert Montague who had taken it by a healthy 767 votes in the 2007 polls.
Silvera, a cousin of former Home Affairs and Justice Minister Noel Silvera, who served as a Member of Parliament for Central St Mary, enters the election with history, as it relates to the below 300 vote-margin, being against him.
In 1962, the PNP's Stuart Charles won the seat over JLP's Talbot Forrest by 297 votes. Forrest returned in the 1967 election to win the seat, beating the PNP's Holroyd Thompson by 125.
Forrest failed to defend the slender margin in the 1972 elections, losing by 714 votes to the PNP's Anthony Capleton.
Silvera, in winning the seat in 2011, secured 1,438 more votes than Delano Franklyn did for the PNP in 2007. Montague, on the other hand, increased his numbers by only 444 votes.
The constituency has five electoral divisions: Carron Hall, Gayle, Oracabessa, Retreat and Boscobel.
In 2011, Montague won the Carron Hall (1,897 to 1,186) and Gayle divisions (2,059 to 1,682) but lost heavily in Oracabessa (1,762 to Silvera's 2,948). The voting in Retreat (1,721- Montague to 1,755 Silvera) and Boscobel (2,027 Montague to 2,122 Silvera) were close.
Of the 16 contested elections in West St Mary, the JLP has won six and the PNP has won 10.
There are 35,475 persons registered to vote in West St Mary .
- Daraine Luton
Winning margins
- 1944 - 1,304 votes
JLP's Lester Simmonds over PNP's Williams Robinson
• 1949 - 676 votes
JLP's Lester Simmonds over PNP's Stuart Charles
• 1955 - 2308 votes
PNP's Stuart Charles over JLP's R. Lindo
• 1959 - 2,039 votes
PNP's Stuart Charles over
JLP's Lily Burke
• 1962 - 297 votes
PNP's Stuart Charles over JLP's Talbot Forrest
• 1967 - 125 votes
JLP's Talbot Forrest over PNP's Holroyd Thompson
• 1972 - 714 votes
PNP' Anthony Capleton over JLP's Talbot Forrest
• 1976 - 2007 votes
PNP's AGR Byfield over
JLP's Barry Wahrman
• 1980 - 1,200 votes
JLP's Talbot Forrest over PNP's Vincent Edward
• 1983 - 2,760 votes
JLP's Hyacinth Knight over independent John Farrell
• 1989 - 2,569 votes
PNP's Terry Gillette over
JLP's Hyacinth Knight
• 1993 - 2,300
PNP's Terry Gillette over
JLP's Hyacinth Knight
• 1997 - 1,804 votes
PNP's Terry Gillette over
JLP's Hyacinth Knight
• 2002 - 849 votes
PNP's Neil McGill over
JLP's Sutcliff Haughton-James
• 2007 - 767 votes
JLP's Robert Montague over PNP's Delano Franklyn
• 2011 - 227 votes
PNP's Jolyan Silvera over JLP's Robert Montague