JLP confident in Kingston Central

Senior figures in the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have expressed confidence that the party will retain the constituency of Kingston Central in the next general election.

General elections are constitutionally due by September.

Kingston Central has traditionally gone to the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) since it was established, counting former Prime Minister Michael Manley and former education minister Reverend Ronald Thwaites among its former members of parliament.

But that dominance ended in the last general election in 2020 when the JLP’s Donovan Williams defeated the PNP’s Imani Duncan-Price by nearly 500 votes.

“When dem a sleep we a work,” said Delroy Williams, deputy mayor of Kingston, explaining his brother’s surprise election victory after his reluctant entry into representational politics.

“We worked hard for the victory in 2020. We know how it was won. The first time they might say a surprise we surprise them. So now they are taking us seriously,” he continued.

The deputy Kingston mayor said the Member of Parliament for Kingston Central has worked hard to deliver more projects across the constituency than any of its former parliamentary representatives.

He also made reference to the poor sanitary facilities that temporarily shuttered the popular eating spot Crab Circle in Kingston and credited the MP for fixing the problem.

“MP Donovan Williams fix dat under a Labour government of course,” said Delroy Williams, Mayor of Kingston at the time, as he addressed JLP supporters on Sunday during a meeting of the party’s Area Council One at Holy Family Primary School in downtown Kingston.

“I couldn’t believe it that after years and years of PNP representation in central Kingston that Campbell Town could have had that experience,” he said.

Delroy Williams also cited the rehabilitation of the Fleet Street housing development and the construction of modern homes under the New Social Housing Programme as examples of the MP’s achievements.

“Donovan Williams, as MP, has distinguished himself as a proper, hard-working MP who has delivered to the people of Kingston Central and I say because of that…dem vex,” he said.

“Dem really think say di people dem a fool. If the people dem see hard work and good representation what you want them to do. The people are voting for…say progress and prosperity if you want.”

Delroy Chuck, Member of Parliament for St Andrew North Eastern, promised to deliver a simple message to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.

“I can tell you prime minister based on what I saw in central Kingston that Donovan Williams is taking home central Kingston,” said Chuck, the Minister of Justice.

- Livern Barrett

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