Crawford Out !!!

THERE were tense moments at yes­ter­day’s St Andrew East Rural can­di­date selec­tion exer­cise at the People’s National Party (PNP) head­quar­ters in St Andrew, as busi­ness­man Peter Blake defeat­ed incum­bent Member of Parliament Damion Crawford to secure the right to rep­re­sent the par­ty in the next gen­er­al election.

The selec­tion exer­cise teetered on the brink of a firestorm after it was announced by PNP Deputy General Secretary Julian Robinson that Blake polled 217 votes to Crawford’s 166, which flat-lined the young MP’s polit­i­cal career. Just over 500 del­e­gates were eli­gi­ble to vote. One bal­lot was spoilt.

Heading into yes­ter­day’s run-off, which began at 10:00 am and end­ed at 3:00pm, an embat­tled Crawford told the Jamaica Observer that he was “pret­ty con­fi­dent, hav­ing done the work”.

“Our peo­ple are com­ing out ear­ly; we knew the rain was going to fall, so we had to ensure that we had the Xs in the box­es. We are con­fi­dent… I think there are more peo­ple who are sat­is­fied than dis­sat­is­fied,” he said at that time, not­ing that it was an inter­nal elec­tion and imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing would be the process of get­ting “all PNP” on board.

Singing to the same tune, Blake, who was the 2011 stan­dard-bear­er for the par­ty before being replaced by Crawford, said: “We feel fair­ly con­fi­dent enuh… the peo­ple are about to speak, or have spo­ken already.”

At the same time, he rub­bished rumours that the par­ty would defy the del­e­gates and replace him for the high­ly antic­i­pat­ed gen­er­al elec­tion if he emerged the win­ner, insist­ing that the par­ty would not put the con­stituen­cy through the “trau­ma of a selec­tion” and not use him.

“It is being repeat­ed­ly report­ed to me by del­e­gates and con­stituents that my oppo­nent and his agent have been telling them that should I be suc­cess­ful in the upcom­ing selec­tion, that it is the inten­tion of the par­ty not to rat­i­fy me as the can­di­date,” Blake said in a let­ter to General Secretary Paul Burke.

In respond­ing to his con­cern, Burke said: “…My own opin­ion, based on your con­cerns about a neg­a­tive cam­paign being waged against you, is that they would have to be new con­cerns as the unsub­stan­ti­at­ed con­cerns of the past, I believe, could not hold any mer­it what­so­ev­er at this time.”

Orange-clad par­ty faith­ful in sup­port of Crawford con­verged just out­side the gates of the par­ty’s head­quar­ters, at times obstruct­ing traf­fic, eat­ing, drink­ing and smok­ing, while sup­port­ers of Blake stood on the oppo­site side of the road look­ing on tentatively.

Several tents set up by the MP housed sup­port­ers and mem­bers of his cam­paign team, who went through lists ensur­ing their del­e­gates had turned up to vote. In the mean­time, chal­lenger Blake, who oper­at­ed from a house on Bougainvillea Avenue in Mona, con­duct­ed a roll-call him­self before del­e­gates were trans­port­ed to the par­ty head­quar­ters where they cast their ballots.

Shortly after 3:00 pm, when Robinson announced the results, tem­pers flared as dis­grun­tled Crawford sup­port­ers became bois­ter­ous, hurl­ing objects at times and even threat­en­ing to fight.

“No Crawford, no vote!” sup­port­ers of the first-time MP shouted.

“East Rural St Andrew a go to Labourite since Crawford nuh get it!” one sup­port­er said, argu­ing that Crawford pro­motes edu­ca­tion and devel­op­ment of the constituents.

“This man is not about hand­outs and that is why them fight­ing him. Him build road, cen­tre, and edu­cate wi. Who is this Blake? Mi nev­er see him yet,” said anoth­er Comrade.

But the major­i­ty of the del­e­gates who vot­ed showed their approval for Blake, with one insist­ing that the busi­ness­man was who he saw work­ing in the con­stituen­cy for most of Crawford’s stewardship.

“Damion stand up and seh him nuh inna cur­ry goat pol­i­tics, but a nuh suh di ting guh. You can’t just change the ting suh; it’s a process,” Clifton Findley, a Blake sup­port­er said.

“Him dis wi — call wi all ply-board Comrades and cur­ry goat Comrades. Him seh him naah come nuh funer­al. Well, wi naah vote fi him,” Carlene Whyte, anoth­er Blake sup­port­er, said.

Blake, after learn­ing he had tri­umphed, said: “The peo­ple have spo­ken. The peo­ple are the pow­er and the peo­ple were over on this side.”

Asked what would be his next move, Blake respond­ed: “Whole heap of work, and we’re going to win the con­stituen­cy for the People’s National Party.”

He denied that there was any form of dis­uni­ty with­in the con­stituen­cy and extend­ed an olive branch to Crawford.

“Just work with me, just like how I worked with you and build the com­mu­ni­ty as one,” urged Blake.

In the mean­time, Crawford strug­gled to tem­per the reac­tion of his sup­port­ers who lev­elled accu­sa­tions of foul play against the par­ty Secretariat.

“I am as sur­prised as you are. But at the end of the day, the par­ty has pro­ce­dures and we entered, so there­fore, the results we have to accept,” he said to loud boos and shouts of “no”.

“I knew what I was risk­ing when I decid­ed to do what I did. I risked my career for chil­dren who I don’t even know their names. I spent $600,000 to do diag­nos­tic tests; I could have eas­i­ly done it for fer­tilis­er. So if you risk and don’t get the return, accept the risk,” the MP said to more boos from his supporters.

“I was a PNP before I was a can­di­date. I will remain a PNP, even if I am not a candidate.”

He down­played talk of foul play in the selec­tion, instead stat­ing that he had every con­fi­dence in the par­ty’s sec­re­tari­at. “There were 400 del­e­gates and the major­i­ty felt that what I did was­n’t sat­is­fac­to­ry, and I will sup­port the vic­tor 100 per cent,” said Crawford.

Crawford is the last among sev­er­al PNP mem­bers of par­lia­ment who have been chal­lenged for their candidacy.

The rum­blings with­in the con­stituen­cy emerged after Crawford announced that he would not be seek­ing re-elec­tion. He admit­ted that he was not con­vinced at the time of his announce­ment that the style of pol­i­tics he brought to the con­stituen­cy would pro­pel him to vic­to­ry at the polls. He lat­er made an about-turn, say­ing that his ear­li­er announce­ment was a trick. sto­ry orig­i­nat­ed here VIDEO: PNP dis­cards Crawford