The lack of proper road infrastructure and access to water remain some of the issues that persons would want to see tackled by the new member of parliament to be elected on October 30 for the St Mary South Eastern constituency.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the election date before a sea of labourites in Annotto Bay, St Mary on Sunday night.
Nomination day is expected to be next Monday, October 9 for also St Andrew South Western, and St Andrew Southern.
However, the attention is being placed on St Mary South Eastern, which will be contested by two medical professionals. They are the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Dr Norman Dunn, who lost
by only five votes upon the conclusion of a magisterial recount in March 2016 to Dr Winston Green of the People’s National Party (PNP), who died on August 14 this year.
Dr Green’s replacement is new comer to the political arena, Dr Shane Alexis.
Despite the fan fare that is expected to be cast on the constituency as the area is of crucial political significance to especially the ruling JLP government, some residents of the constituency want to see more done for them in terms of road infrastructure, water and employment.
St Mary South East consists of the Belfield, Richmond, Castleton and Annotto Bay divisions.
The PNP had raised concern regarding that some $167 million, which the government plans to spend on rehabilitating the Junction main road in St Mary this month, may be used to win votes in the by-election. There also have been concerns about the distribution of money to some persons in the constituency.
However, at the political meeting on Sunday night, Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared that the party did not need to buy votes to win the by-election.
“We are going to show them that this is a by-election, not an election to be bought. We don’t need to buy this election in order to win,” Holness declared to thunderous cheers from the labourites gathered in Annotto Bay.
He called on the party supporters across the constituency to support Dr Norman Dunn.
If Dunn wins the seat, the JLP will increase its parliamentary seats to 33 to the PNP’s 30.
