Clarke says local polls key to JLP’s fourth-term bid

WESTERN BUREAU:

Heroy Clarke, the sole nominee for the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) deputy leadership of Area Council Four, said the road to a fourth term in government runs through the 2028 local government elections.

Speaking at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Sunday, Clarke called for party unity and a renewed grassroots campaign across western Jamaica.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and member of parliament for St James Central said the JLP must win all five municipal corporations in Area Council Four to build momentum ahead of the next general election.

“The 2028 local government elections is our referendum. It is a scoreboard before the next general election,” said Clarke, arguing that the results would serve as a barometer of public confidence in the governing party.

Calling on delegates to help the JLP win all five municipal corporations in the west — Trelawny, St James, Hanover, Westmoreland and St Elizabeth — Clarke also urged the party to strengthen its organisation at the community level.

“Delegates, I am not asking you to win a few divisions, I am asking you to give this government a resounding, undeniable five out of five majority across the west,” he said.

Clarke’s appeal comes against a backdrop of mixed results for the JLP in the February 2024 local government elections. The party won 11 of St James’s 17 divisions, six of nine in Trelawny, and nine of 15 in St Elizabeth. However, the People’s National Party (PNP) won all seven divisions in Hanover and 11 of 14 in Westmoreland.

As a result, the JLP controls three of the five municipal corporations in Area Council Four, while the PNP controls the other two.

Clarke said the party must address internal divisions and rebuild its grassroots network ahead of the next municipal elections.

“My mandate is political work; serious, sustained, boots-on-the-ground political work,” he said. “We will go into every polling division, every branch and every community. We will listen to our workers. We will bring home those who have strayed, those who are weary, and we will welcome a new generation into the family of Labour [Party].”

He also called for every branch to be active by Christmas and urged councillors, constituency caretakers and party workers to act in unity.

“After today, there is no North Trelawny or South East St Elizabeth, there is only one Area Council Four,” he said.

Clarke argued that local government was critical because it delivered public services directly to communities, including road repairs, drainage, markets, water and poor relief.

“Government happens in the community. Central government makes policies, but it is the local government that delivers it to the people’s doorstep,” he said.

He pledged to build on the work of outgoing deputy leader J.C. Hutchinson and work with the party’s national leadership to strengthen the organisation across the region.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com