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Lisa Prevails

St Ann South Eastern MP Lisa Hanna (centre) is embraced by supporters after she emerged as the winner of yesterday’s People’s National Party candidate selection at Ferncourt High School in the parish. (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON)
St Ann South Eastern MP Lisa Hanna (cen­tre) is embraced by sup­port­ers after she emerged as the win­ner of yesterday’s People’s National Party can­di­date selec­tion at Ferncourt High School in the parish. (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON)

EMBATTLED Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern Lisa Hanna was yes­ter­day select­ed by del­e­gates to return as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the People’s National Party (PNP) in upcom­ing par­lia­men­tary elec­tions as the chal­lenge mount­ed to her lead­er­ship fiz­zled amidst a quar­rel over the vot­ers’ list.

Hanna, whose stew­ard­ship of the con­stituen­cy came under heavy scruti­ny in recent months, was chal­lenged by Councillor Lydia Richards (Bensonton Division).

Of the 484 del­e­gates who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the selec­tion exer­cise, 468 vot­ed for Hanna, 10 vot­ed for Richards, while six votes were spoilt. A total of 1,056 del­e­gates were eli­gi­ble to vote.

A People’s National Party delegate dips her finger in ink after casting her vote, as her colleagues await their turn.
A People’s National Party del­e­gate dips her fin­ger in ink after cast­ing her vote, as her col­leagues await their turn.

Richards, who had expressed con­cerns over the vot­ers’ list, was a no-show. She told the Jamaica Observer by phone yes­ter­day that she had indi­cat­ed to the par­ty’s Secretariat that she was not com­fort­able with the list.

“There are too many inac­cu­ra­cies and I have been writ­ing to the gen­er­al sec­re­tary back and forth about this. When he gave me the list on Friday, noth­ing was changed. He did not even look into one of the things that I men­tioned,” Richards argued.

“I could not con­test with that, but I’m still there. So I’m hop­ing that they will come to their sens­es and realise that you can­not move for­ward with lies,” she said.

Richards charged that, even with her con­cerns, the par­ty’s Secretariat had not con­tact­ed her, but decid­ed to move for­ward with the voting.

PNP delegates wait in line to vote yesterday.
PNP del­e­gates wait in line to vote yesterday.

“I am not com­ing,” she said.

Chief among her con­cerns was the argu­ment that peo­ple were list­ed as being mem­bers of groups to which they had no knowl­edge. It was fur­ther alleged that peo­ple’s sig­na­tures were also forged to indi­cate that they were mem­bers of these groups.

The Jamaica Observer sought clar­i­ty on the mat­ter and was told by PNP Deputy General Secretary Julian Robinson that up to Saturday Richards had indi­cat­ed that she would participate.

“You can­not oper­ate in a flux. Up to yes­ter­day (Saturday) Lydia indi­cat­ed that she would be par­tic­i­pat­ing, which is why there are two names on the bal­lot,” Robinson said.

“I am here to con­duct a selec­tion exer­cise and that is what I am here to do today,” an obvi­ous­ly annoyed Robinson added.

Voting began prompt­ly at 10:00 am and pro­gressed steadi­ly and with­out inci­dent until three min­utes to 4 o’clock when the gates were offi­cial­ly closed.

Lisa Hanna supporters are in a jubilant mood during yesterday’s selection exercise at Ferncourt High School in St Ann. (PHOTOS: MICHAEL GORDON)
Lisa Hanna sup­port­ers are in a jubi­lant mood dur­ing yesterday’s selec­tion exer­cise at Ferncourt High School in St Ann. (PHOTOS: MICHAEL GORDON)

Scores of Hanna sup­port­ers streamed into Ferncourt High School in Claremont in the parish, while there was no notice­able sup­port for the coun­cil­lor, with some Hanna sup­port­ers insist­ing that Richards was hiding.

“You can’t swap black dog fi mon­key,” said Donna Thomas, a Hanna supporter.

“Ah town mi come all di way from fi sup­port Lisa. Ah she fi win. She a beau­ty, and she is for young peo­ple,” said one woman who gave her name as Lilith.

Other Hanna sup­port­ers echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments, insist­ing that she was doing “a good” job in the constituency.

“Weh Lydia she come from? She si pow­er and want pow­er, but she haf­fi wait her turn,” anoth­er Hanna sup­port­er shouted.

Several par­ty stal­warts were also present, includ­ing vet­er­an Senator K D Knight, John Junor, Member of Parliament for St Catherine Eastern Denise Daley, Region Six Chairman Ian Hayles, for­mer trea­sur­er of the par­ty Norman Horne, and Member of Parliament for St Mary Western Joylan Silvera.

In the mean­time, Hanna, who is not enjoy­ing the sup­port of three of four coun­cil­lors, yes­ter­day told the Observer she was con­fi­dent of vic­to­ry at the polls.

Following the announce­ment, Hanna said: “I am just very grate­ful. I am thank­ful to every­one who par­tic­i­pat­ed, par­tic­u­lar­ly those group mem­bers and Comrades in South East St Ann who came out today, and [I am] thank­ing my team mem­bers and the PNP on the whole.

A relaxed-looking Lisa Hanna during yesterday’s selection exercise at Ferncourt High School.
A relaxed-look­ing Lisa Hanna dur­ing yesterday’s selec­tion exer­cise at Ferncourt High School.

“It has been a very hum­bling and sober­ing expe­ri­ence, but at the same time a great expe­ri­ence. It has recon­firmed and bol­stered my love and sup­port for my peo­ple in St Ann,” Hanna said to loud chants of “Lisa, Lisa, Lisa!”

As to how the two-term mem­ber of par­lia­ment plans to address the obvi­ous divide with­in the con­stituen­cy? Hanna remains mum.

“We’ll tell you a lit­tle more about that, but right now we’re just thank­ful and we’re just going to set­tle down and go and enjoy our­selves a lit­tle bit,” she told the Observer.

Hanna will now await rat­i­fi­ca­tion from the par­ty’s exec­u­tive coun­cil, which is the high­est deci­sion-mak­ing body out­side of its annu­al con­fer­ence, before she can be put for­ward as the candidate.
Story orig­i­nat­ed here :Lisa pre­vails