Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

CONTROL OF the Portland parish may be heading back to the fold of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) at the close of the local government election on December 5.

The People's National Party (PNP), which lost the council in the 2003 elections, took charge of the seat after Benny White, who was elected on a JLP ticket for the Fellowship division, switched his allegiance to the PNP.

The JLP had won five of the nine council seats while the PNP won four. However, when White switched the PNP took control and White became mayor of Port Antonio.

However, at the September 3 general elections, the JLP stamped Portland green, garnering more votes in six of the nine divisions.

James Robertson, the JLP deputy leader with responsibility for that parish, told The Gleaner that he has "no doubt that the JLP will win Portland".

"The work is there, the organisation is there, we will take Portland easily," he told The Gleaner.

He added: "We are going to make the party happy...Portland is comfortable. We have done our homework. We are going to go for the two divisions in Port Antonio, those are the two difficult ones, but we are going for them," Mr. Robertson told The Gleaner.

Confident of a win

Meanwhile, the PNP secretariat said it would be competitive in the parish but the man who has overall responsibility for the parish is confident of a win.

Dr. Donald Rhodd, PNP Region three chairman and Member of Parliament for eastern Portland, told The Gleaner that he was confident the party would retain the council.

"We will be winning the parish. We have four incumbents returning and those candidates are better than the JLP's and will be elected by the people," Dr. Rhodd said.

He added that the party had zoomed in on another two council seats and should it win, the PNP would take six of the nine council seats.

Among the seats the PNP plans to retake is the St. Margaret's Bay division which the PNP lost by 219 in the general elections. Joseph Wallen takes on the JLP's Floyd Patterson.

The PNP has also said that it will take the Balcarres division, which the party lost by 944 votes in the general election. Doreen Forbes, who was the candidate for the west Portland division before she resigned, is leading the PNP's charge there against Gulab Dukharan of the JLP, which is out to sweep the parish council elections.

However, according to Dr. Rhobb, "Portland will be the PNP's beacon in the east. People are hurting and people are disappointed with the JLP, they will vote for the PNP candidates, who are better candidates."

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com