CONSTITUENCY PROFILE: ST THOMAS EASTERN

St Thomas 'swinging to the JLP'
Anthony Myers
Contributor

THIRTY-TWO CONSTITUENCIES were fixed in the new constitution granted to Jamaica in 1944. The parish of St. Thomas was divided into two constituencies namely -- Western and Eastern.

St. Thomas, when compared with the other 13 parishes, has a unique voting pattern. Of the 12 contested parliamentary general elections, 1944 to 1997, only the January 12, 1955 election results had both major political parties each winning one seat.

The PNP tasted victory in the parish for the first time, as Ken A. Clarke, polling 5,279 votes, defeated by 957, J.A. McPherson of the JLP, who polled 4,322 votes, to take the Western seat.

The JLP on the other hand, continued its dominance in the East, as Lynden G. Newland polled 8,166 votes to defeat Isaac J. Matalon of the PNP, who polled 5,226 votes, a convincing majority of 2,940 votes.

When one considers that it was the same Lynden G. Newland who had lost the St. Andrew Central constituency by 2,001 votes to Noel Newton Nethersole, the PNP candidate in the December 20, 1949 general election, and had crossed the border of St. Andrew into St. Thomas to successfully contest the Eastern seat, one can say without fear of contradiction that the St. Thomas Eastern constituency was once a JLP stronghold.

This could also be said of the parish as in six parliamentary general elections, 1944, 1949, 1959, 1962, 1980 and 1989, the JLP won both seats, defeating the PNP by majorities ranging from 468 to 6,238 in the East, (the PNP not contesting the St. Thomas Eastern seat in 1944) and 1,100 to 8,091 in the West.

When the number of constituencies were increased islandwide by eight by the Constituencies (Boundaries) Order 1966 under Section 67 of the constitution which came into operation on the 3rd January 1967, one additional constituency was created in St. Thomas. This move by the then JLP administration was strongly opposed and condemned by the opposition PNP.

The PNP argued that the JLP, by careful manipulation of the registration system, reduced the voters' list islandwide from a high 796,540 in 1962 to its lowest -- 543,307 -- in 1967, a decrease of 253,233 or 119,762 less than the 1944 list. The parish of St. Thomas stood out like a "sore thumb" as, in spite of a 29.6% (10,720) decrease in registration the parish got one additional seat -- St. Thomas Central.

It is interesting to note that the parish of Portland with a voters' list of 26,007 or 516 more than St. Thomas's 25,491, did not get an additional seat. Clearly, this was gerrymandering by the JLP. It therefore came as no surprise when all three constituencies were won by the JLP in the February 21, 1967 general election. The JLP's dominance of the parish continued in the February 29, 1972 elections as in spite of the PNP having won the general election convincingly, 37 to 16, all three seats in St. Thomas went to the JLP.

The PNP now in charge, it was that party's turn to carry out the constituencies' (boundaries) realignment. So in 1976, in spite of a 33.3% increase in the voters' list for the parish of St. Thomas and the number of seats islandwide moving from 53 to 60, the PNP was only too happy to reduce the number of seats in St. Thomas from three to two. The PNP government cited the 327,665 (60.3%) increase in the voters' list islandwide when compared with the 1967 list and the fact that St. Thomas only contributed a mere 8,483 (2.6%).

The JLP could hardly protest as the parish of Portland with two constituencies, had 33,691 registered voters, 283 fewer than St. Thomas.

The elections were held on the December 15, 1976 and the PNP, for the first time in eight parliamentary general elections, won both seats.

Although the JLP won the parish in 1980, taking both seats by wide margins, the PNP won both seats in 1993 and 1997.

Can the PNP win the parish for a fourth time or will the JLP once again return to its dominance of the parish? It is instructive to note that the JLP in all 12 contested parliamentary general elections (1944 to 1997) has never won St. Thomas Western and lost St. Thomas Eastern.

Can the PNP reverse this trend in 2002? Can the stewardship of the incumbent Dr. Fenton Ferguson make a difference? The pendulum seems to be swinging the JLP way, but only just.