Diehard Determined To Vote For Beloved PNP

By: Admin

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‘Doba’ Miller voted for the first time in the 1972 general election when the People’s National Party (PNP) won 37 of the 53 seats in Parliament following a 78.9 per cent voter turnout.

Almost five decades later, the 76-year-old PNP supporter, who has lost his sight, is still enthused about voting for the party’s candidate in Clarendon South Western.

Miller, who requested that his first name not be published, is a PNP diehard who has voted in every election since his enumeration. And even failing sight will not deter him from heading to the polls on September 3.

“Me affi vote, man. How me a go feel the night vote a count pan TV and me hear say PNP lose by one vote?” Miller told The Gleaner.

Expressing his undying love for the political party, Miller named his first daughter Beverley after Beverley Manley, wife of former Prime Minister Michael Manley, and his second daughter Portia in honour of former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

He jokes that if he were to do a deed poll, he would rename himself Michael or Norman.

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Miller spoke good-naturedly of Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke and Clarendon Central incumbent Mike Henry, who is hunting his tenth term in that seat.

“A two Labourite alone me like. You see the finance minister deh ... . Nigel, me never hear him pass no remarks pan nobody, and Mike Henry a mi boss,” said Miller.

Describing Henry as a “good man to everybody”, Miller said that the 85-year-old parliamentarian was sure to win again on on election day. Henry attained 69.96 per cent of the votes to defeat the PNP’s Norma Lue-Lindsay by a margin of 4,490 in the 2016 election.

The septuagenarian is urging the veteran election warrior not to bother to campaign.

“Fi him seat sure, sure. Him never give me nutten, you know, but Mike a good man,” he told The Gleaner.

Miller said he is certain that the PNP’s candidate in Clarendon South West, newcomer Lothian Cousins, will emerge as the MP when the ballots are counted on September 3. Cousins is up against the JLP’s Kent Gammon, who lost by a 1,570-vote margin in the last general election.