Waite beats all-comers
Published:Monday | July 19, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Noel Thompson, Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
After a sometimes bitter and bruising campaign in the North East St Elizabeth constituency, Senator Basil Waite emerged victorious in an internal poll to choose the People's National Party candidate to line up for the constituency in the next national election.
Waite, an opposition spokesman on education, had squared off with four other PNP contenders during a selection exercise which saw close to a full turnout of delegate electors at the St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz.
The contenders were Nigel Pagon, a businessman; Winston Samuels, a teacher; Wensworth Skeffery, Region Five chairman; and Lynden Rose, a dentist.
Three hundred and fourteen of a maximum 327 ballots were cast.
Julian Robinson, deputy general secretary of the PNP, announced that Waite polled 179 votes; Skeffery 109; Rose eight; Samuels five, and Pagon 13.
There was jubilation inside the room as Waite's supporters sang and danced popular revival songs such as We Nuh Want No Botheration.
"I am humbled by the reaction of the people. They have spoken and I have heard them. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve them. We will now have to work towards reuniting the constituents and establish our strength and structures within the constituency and our development plan to create opportunities for the people," Waite said.
Waite, born in the north St Elizabeth town of Elderslie, near St James' southern border, said his hometown roots and political work in the constituency had significant bearing on his triumph.
"I think the support of stalwarts such as Roger Clarke, Danny Buchanan, the councillors and my campaign manager, who shall remain nameless, have also contributed to my winning."
Anxious supporters
Shortly after 4 p.m. yesterday, orange-clad supporters wearing T-shirts emblazoned with photos of their preferred candidate streamed into the schoolyard to hear the announcement of the winner.
Not even squalls could deter them from coming, as party loyalists crouched underneath umbrellas, along piazzas and inside minibuses.
President of the People's National Party Youth Organisation, Damion Crawford, beamed with confidence ahead of the count that Waite would be declared the winner.
"I am extremely confident that Basil is a far better candidate, and the result will reflect that," Crawford had said.
Weeks earlier, rifts had appeared among the PNP's North East St Elizabeth base, as intra-party rival supporters engaged in a public war of words - climaxing in a shoving match at a party meeting - and forcing PNP President Portia Simpson Miller to impose a gag order on candidates in a bid to defuse tensions.
The contest was set after the party hierarchy decided that Kern Spencer, the sitting MP, could be a political liability to the PNP were he to face the electorate again. Spencer is on a fraud rap related to his involvement in a light-bulb distribution programme while he was junior energy minister in the Simpson Miller administration.