Westmoreland PNP councillor Lawton McKenzie going back independent

Councillor for the Grange Hill Division in Westmoreland Western Lawton McKenzie is to again cut ties with the People's National Party (PNP) to become an independent.

This will happen tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16. 

Last July, McKenzie along with councillor for Little London Division Ian Myles and Garfield James, the councillor Sheffield Division, resigned from the PNP and sat temporarily as independent councillors before Myles and James crossed the floor to join the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

McKenzie broke ranks with Myles and James and went back to the PNP as part of an effort to prevent the JLP from booting Bertel Moore as mayor, using its majority six at the time to take control of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.

“Come tomorrow [January 16] I will go back as an independent [councillor], and I am meeting with my cluster manager and executive and they will advise me accordingly of the way forward towards nomination day,” McKenzie told The Gleaner.

His decision follows last night's presentation of local government election candidates for Westmoreland by Mark Golding, president of the PNP, at a meeting at Manning's School in Savanna-La-Mar.

Golding named Warren Littleton as the party's candidate for the Grange Hill Division among 12 others across the parish of Westmoreland.

“I am doing it because none of the two other candidates can put the people's package together,” McKenzie noted as he huffed at the PNP for not selecting him.

- Albert Ferguson

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