Battleground seat: St Catherine North Eastern - JLP’s Leslie Campbell vs PNP’s Phyllis Mitchell
Published:Friday | February 19, 2016 | 12:00 AMEdmond Campbell
JLP's Leslie Campbell
vs PNP's Phyllis Mitchell
Of the 14 times that electors in St Catherine North East voted for the candidates of their choice in general elections since 1944, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has registered 10 wins in its column, with the People's National Party (PNP) able to eke out only four victories.
In 2011, the JLP's Gregory Mair trounced his challenger, the PNP's Abe Dabdoub, by 618 votes, but the voter turnout was nothing to shout about, with just 50 per cent of eligible electors participating in the process.
This time around, Phyllis Mitchell, a close ally of PNP president Portia Simpson Miller, has thrown her hat into the ring, returning to the seat she once represented in Parliament when she sent the JLP's Anthony Johnson into retirement from representational politics.
LOST SEAT
Mitchell beat Johnson in 1993 by only 160 votes and was initially declared the winner of the St Catherine North East seat by 37 votes in 1997 over the JLP's Dabdoub. However, Mitchell lost the seat in 2001 in a court challenge brought by her challenger. Dabdoub later crossed the floor of Parliament and joined the PNP.
A seasoned politician, Mitchell cannot be overlooked in her quest to return to Gordon House. She is going up against the JLP's Leslie Campbell, an attorney-at-law who tasted defeat in the 2007 election when the PNP's Natalie Neita Headley dismissed his challenge for the St Catherine East Central constituency.
There was no St Catherine North East constituency in the 1967 and 1972 general elections owing to boundary adjustments. However, further realignment saw the creation of a new St Catherine North East constituency in 1976.
The race for this seat is expected to go down to the wire, and it is believed that the party that brings out a larger percentage of uncommitted voters in the constituency on election day will be celebrating all night.
BOX: St Catherine North East
2011 Margin of victory: 618 votes
JLP's Gregory Mair - 5,786
PNP's Abe Dabdoub - 5,168
Total electors - 21,961
Voter turnout - 50 %
Rejected ballots - 42
1944 - Margin of victory: 1,160 votes
JLP's Samuel Black - 4,559
PNP's Courtney Leslie - 3,399
Total electors - 23,268
Voter turnout - 37.7 %
Rejected ballots - 816
1949 - Margin of victory: 2,357 votes
PNP's Donald Nation - 5,507
JLP's S. Bennett - 3,150
IND. Samuel Black - 1,162
IND. Melbourne Cox - 1,016
IND. Isaiah Crossley - 1,004
Total electors - 25,213
Voter turnout - 50 %
Rejected ballots - 285
1955 - Margin of victory: 2,988 votes
PNP's Melbourne Cox - 7,018
JLP's Hector Sage - 2,681
Farmers' Party J.P. Gyles - 4,030
IND. Isaiah Crossley - 733
Total electors - 25,597
Voter turnout - 57.6 %
Rejected ballots - 291
1959 - Margin of victory: 591 votes
JLP's John Gyles - 7,293
PNP's Melbourne Cox - 6,702
Total electors - 20,905
Voter turnout - 67.6 %
Rejected ballots - 130
1962 - Margin of victory: 1,332 votes
JLP's John Gyles - 7,761
PNP's Ben Cox - 6,429
Total electors - 19,717
Voter turnout - 72.4 %
Rejected ballots - 97
1976 - Margin of victory: 2,422 votes
JLP's EK Powell - 6,352
PNP's Lloyd Hay - 3,930
Total electors - 12,394
Voter turnout - 83 %
Rejected ballots - 66
1980 - Margin of victory: 5,752 votes
JLP's E.K. Powell - 7,945
PNP's Dorrett Aarons - 2,193
Total electors - 12,403
Voter turnout - 82 %
Rejected ballots - 52
1983
JLP's E.K Powell elected unopposed by acclamation
1989 - Margin of victory: 1,136 votes
JLP's Anthony Johnson - 5,740
PNP's Phyllis Mitchell - 4,604
Total electors - 14,521
Voter Turnout - 72 %
Rejected ballots - 147
1993 - Margin of victory: 160 votes
PNP's Phyllis Mitchell - 3,983
JLP's Anthony Johnson - 3,823
Total electors - 13,188
Voter turnout - 59 %
Rejected ballots - 35
1997 - Margin of victory: 37 votes
PNP's Phyllis Mitchell - 4,750
JLP's Abe Dabdoub - 4,713
Total electors - 14,134
Voter turnout - 68 %
Rejected ballots - 92
2002 - Margin of victory: 683 votes
JLP's Abe Dabdoub - 5,297
PNP's Phyllis Mitchell - 4,614
Total electors - 15,600
Voter turnout - 64 %
Rejected ballots - 62
2007 - Margin of victory: 959 votes
JLP's Gregory Mair - 6,064
PNP's Phyllis Mitchell - 5,105
Total electors - 18,289
Voter turnout - 61 %
Rejected ballots - 52