Edmund Bartlett (JLP) Vs Noel Donaldson (PNP)

By: Admin

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A JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) member has served as member of parliament (MP) for East Central St James for 26 of the 39 years that the constituency has been in existence.

Ed Bartlett, the sitting MP, has been there 13 of those years, but he is thought to be vulnerable now considering that he won by only 174 votes in 2011.

Bartlett is scheduled to face the PNP’s Noel Donaldson, a man who defected from the JLP back to the PNP, which he left a decade ago.

The PNP’s Violet Neilson, who served 13 years and eight months as MP from 1989 to 2002, is the only nonJLP person to represent the constituency.

The East Central St James constituency was first contested in the 1976 general election. The electoral divisions are Rose Hall, Somerton and Spring Mount. The number of divisions was increased to four with the addition of Salt Spring in 2007. However, Salt Spring, which Bartlett won by 448 votes in the 2011, has since been cut off and is now part of the new Central St James constituency.

Bartlett said that his victory margin in 2011 was impacted by skullduggery as ballots which were cast for him by election day workers were declared spoilt.

There were 24,826 registered voters in 2011 when the people last voted; the number of electors has since risen to 27,608.

WINNING MARGINS

1976 - JLP’S Herbert Eldermire over the PNP’s Edgar Watson by 288 votes.

1980 - JLP’s Winston Spaulding over PNP’s Edgar Watson by 2,842 votes.

1983 - JLP’s Jeff Roach returned unopposed. 

1989 - PNP’s Violet Neilson over JLP’s Godfrey Dyer by 1,058 votes.

1993 - PNP’s Violet Neilson over JLP’s Godfrey Dyer by 330 votes.

1997 - PNP’s Violet Neilson over JLP’s Ed Bartlett by 699 votes.

2002 - JLP’s Ed Bartlett over Donald Colomathi by 1,224 votes.

2007 - JLP’s Ed Bartlett over Donald Colomathi by 1,761 votes.

2011 - JLP’s Ed Bartlett over PNP’s Cedric Stewart by 174 votes.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com