Observer writer HG Helps claims that an impeccable PNP source has informed him that sitting MP, Patrick Atkinson, will not contest the upcoming General Elections. Instead, one of two persons surnamed ‘White’ will contest the elections on behalf of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP).
The constituency has been a source of drama with party supporters fighting and demonstrating for their candidate. A rejected candidate from St Andrew was rumored to be on his way here.
In the end, it seems it will be a straight fight between John Paul (JP) White and Patrick White (yet another Patrick). A ‘Patrick’ has won the North Trelawny seat for the PNP in the last 2 general elections. Patrick Harris defeated Dennis Meadows in 2007 and Patrick Atkinson also defeated Meadows in 20011. Will this be a trifecta of wins for the ‘Patrick’ name?
The JLP is meeting today to decide between Dennis Meadows and Jonathan ‘Fred’ Bartlet. North Trelawny is the last constituency to decide both JLP and PNP caretakers.
From The Jamaica Observer
ONE of two candidates with the surname White will represent the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) in the Trelawny Northern seat in the next general election, impeccable Jamaica Observer sources have said.
The seat, now held by Attorney General Patrick Atkinson, has been under the microscope in recent weeks, as speculation intensifies that there will be a new man in charge when the polls close.
Atkinson has got mixed responses from constituents over his stewardship of the seat which he won over the Jamaica Labour Party’s Dennis Meadows in the December 29, 2011 General Election.
This has fuelled speculation that he will not return as a candidate, but would continue as attorney general and sit in the Senate, should the PNP win the next general election, expected soon.
An internal poll done by the PNP found that Atkinson’s support had dropped “significantly”, according to one senior official privy to the findings, and the party was forced to look at alternative candidates.
That was when the names of civil engineer Jean-Paul “JP” White and agriculturalist Patrick White surfaced. They have both been vigorous in drumming up support for their candidacies and the party’s hierarchy has decided to concentrate on the two, the senior official said yesterday.
Another potential candidate, Fulbright scholar and University of the West Indies lecturer Dr Omar E Hawthorne, was ruled out as a possible candidate. She appeared upbeat when she attended the party’s annual conference at the National Arena in September, but fell off the political radar shortly after.
“One thing I can say is that the candidate will be a White,” the PNP official said yesterday, thereby also ruling out the much-touted introduction of outgoing Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural Damion Crawford, who had been asked by the party to put himself forward.
The Observer has learnt that Crawford will not be a candidate in the next general election, as he will concentrate on being among the leading platform speakers when the party has its public functions.
Crawford, the Observer source said, would, like Atkinson, operate from the Senate, assuming too, that the PNP is successful at the polls. The academic, who lost the St Andrew East Rural delegates vote to Peter Blake, had been asked by the party’s hierarchy to run instead of Blake, who was rejected by the leadership for the second straight election. However, Crawford declined, and the party thereafter offered the seat to former beauty queen and now Senator, Imani Duncan-Price.
JP White ran, unsuccessfully, against the JLP’s Delroy Chuck in the St Andrew North Eastern seat during the December 2011 General Election. Also a businessman, he has family roots at Sherwood in the constituency and also has a house in Trelawny Northern.
Patrick White, who is originally from St Mary, has been living at Stewart Castle in the constituency and working in Trelawny for over a 20 years.
He has been chairman of the Trelawny Board of the National People’s Cooperative Bank since 2012 and is vice-chairman of the Trelawny and St James Cane Growers Association.
Both Whites have already been interviewed by the PNP’s Integrity Commission and have cleared that hurdle successfully, the Observer has been told.
Curated from: The Jamaica Observer
