Departing Moore says PNP will remain in control of WMC

WESTERN BUREAU:

While Bertel Moore is preparing to ride off into the political sunset when the next local government election is called, the People’s National Party (PNP) stalwart is confident that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will never take control of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation (WMC) in the foreseeable future.

“I am not running back but I am fairly positive that we will retain the leadership of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation,” Moore told The Gleaner in a recent interview. “You would have seen the amount of corruption and blunder that the Jamaica Labour Party [Government] has made, and I think the people have seen what is happening, and I am quite sure that for these things, the people are going to react.”

Local government elections are constitutionally due in February of 2022, but the Government has not yet indicated when the elections will be called.

However, Moore is not unduly perturbed about whatever date is decided on. In fact, he is predicting that the undecided voters and PNP supporters will be coming out in support of his party, reversing the inroads the JLP made in the last general election when they swept the entire parish.

“I think the people have seen what is happening and will react and come out and vote this time … it was not a case where there were more JLP than PNP in the general election, it was a case where the PNP supporter did not go out and vote,” said Moore.

In the last local government election in 2016, the PNP won nine of the 14 seats in the WMC. However, two seats are currently vacant as Valdence Gifford, who represented the PNP in the Whitehouse division, resigned in March of 2020; while George Wright, who was the JLP councillor for the Petersfield division, contested the Westmoreland Central seat in the September 2020 general election and resigned to take his seat in the higher office.

Dr Karl Blythe, former MP for Westmoreland Central, who was one of the major forces when the PNP dominated the parish, is of the view that the George Wright saga regarding the alleged abuse of his partner Tanesha Singh, has been a blotch on the JLP while the impeccable record of the Bertel Moore-led Westmoreland Municipal Corporation should give the PNP a special bounce.

“The George Wright situation gave us a little door to go back into the hearts of the people,” said Blythe. “They were very disappointed with him as a JLP member of parliament so in general, I expect that will give the whole parish a little more hope in the PNP.”

Like Moore, Cebert McFarlane, of the Leamington division, will also be walking away from representational politics, but Wentworth Skeffery, the PNP’s deputy general secretary, says all 14 councillor candidates for the impending local government election are already in place.

“Where we have councillors not returning we would have filled those vacancies and our full team is ready to contest the elections. We are taking the campaign back to basics,” said Skeffery.

The candidates, he said, have been engaging the people, and a canvas of the voters has given the PNP the confidence that Westmoreland is in the bag for the Old Hope Road-headquartered party.