Former PNP councillor Lawton McKenzie nominated as independent

Lawton McKenzie, the incumbent councillor for the Grange Hill Division in Westmoreland who resigned from the People's National Party twice within the last six months, was the first to be nominated from a list of 11 people expected to contest the Local Government Elections on February 26.

McKenzie was nominated as an independent candidate.

The four-term incumbent was accompanied by his supporters, largely wearing pink, to the nomination centre at the  Anglican Church Hall in Grange Hill.

He says he is offering himself to complete unfinished projects such as the road leading to the Grange Hill Clinic.

“It is not about making me win. It's about what is due for the people. For instance Ed Bartlett promised me to repair the clinic road and I am relying on him as a friend, as a family and a man of the soil from Westmoreland to ensure that the sick can go to the clinic,” McKenzie said.

He also told The Gleaner after handing in his nomination papers that he is prepared to return to the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in fine style.

In the 2016, local government election, McKenzie won the seat by a margin of 42 votes after polling 892 votes to Basil Thompson of the Jamaica Labour Party, who polled 850 votes.

- Albert Ferguson

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