By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
Edmund Bartlett, on his way back to Gordon House after a nine-year absence. - File
EDMUND BARTLETT, Deputy Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is happy that he is on his way back to Gordon House after a nine-year absence.
This, after defeating Donald Colomathi of the People's National Party (PNP) for the St. James East Central seat in last Wednesday's general election. He also expressed satisfaction that his brother, Dr. St. Aubyn Bartlett, had won the St. Andrew Eastern seat at the expense of the PNP's Colin Campbell.
However, he is disappointed that the party did not win more seats in western Jamaica and as such failed in its bid to form the next Government after 14 years in the political wilderness. The PNP won an historic consecutive fourth term as Government but with a reduced majority. It won 35 seats to the JLP's 25.
Mr. Bartlett, who is the JLP's spokesman on tourism said: "In the west, we worked very hard. We really were hoping to have gotten more seats. The two (defeats) in St. Elizabeth are really disappointing because we really should have gotten those seats," he said. He was referring to South East St. Elizabeth, won by the PNP's Len Blake, and South West St. Elizabeth, which was retained by the PNP's Donald Buchanan by a slim margin.
"I'm disappointed too in North Trelawny and Western Hanover because those are two seats we thought we should have won," he said. Mr. Bartlett explained that the heavy rains that were experienced across the island on election day affected the party's mobilisation effort. Also, he expressed the view that the PNP may have won in Trelawny because it is strong in Falmouth, the parish capital and Lucea, the capital of Hanover.
Undaunted, the JLP deputy leader expressed optimism that with the final counting of ballots still under way, the party maybe able to overturn the small deficits in St. Elizabeth and in North West St. Ann where the PNP's Arnold Bertram had a 26-vote majority over Verna Parchment, JLP, at the end of Wednesday's preliminary count. But, even if the JLP should win those three seats during the final counting of ballots which was still under way on the weekend, it would need another three to command the majority in the 60-seat Parliament.
A consolation for the JLP is the fact that, according to Mr. Bartlett, it has created electoral history by being the only party to have won three seats in St. James while in Opposition. Apart from his East Central St. James seat, the JLP won in St. James West Central where Clive Mullings, attorney-at-law, turned back the PNP's Hugh Solomon, and St. James North West, where Dr. Horace Chang sent the PNP's Gordon Brown packing.
Like Mr. Bartlett, Dr. Chang served as a Member of Parliament during the JLP Government of the 1980s.
