The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is targeting the rural St Andrew South-east seat held in Parliament by Opposition Leader Emmalin Pierre of the rival New National Party (NNP).
Sources told THE NEW TODAY that Congress has put in a number of field workers in the constituency headed by former Member of Parliament Kenrick Fullerton who won the seat in the 2003 general election.
According to a party insider, Fullerton along with Education Minister David Andrew who lost the seat to Pierre in the 2022 general election, has been engaged in house-to-house visits of residents as part of the efforts to defeat the Opposition Leader in the upcoming general election.
He spoke of the Andrew/Fullerton team visiting some households as late as 8.00 p.m at night in order to woo them to Congress.
The source pointed out that the NDC team is targeting the depressed area of Telescope which has been a stronghold of Pierre for several years.
He said that the female NNP boss is very vulnerable in the constituency as she has done very little in three terms as MP to improve the livelihood of residents of Telescope.
He also said that a major Primary school in the constituency was destroyed by the passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Pierre who served as Education Minister in the 2018-22 term of NNP in government only made “token promises” to rebuild the institution.
The source noted that work on the school has started under Congress in which Andrew holds the portfolio of Education.
He said that Congress is confident that it can defeat Pierre due to the fact that a number of former NDC supporters who quit the party after Tourism Minister Peter David was expelled from among their ranks in 2012 have returned home to support the Dickon Mitchell-led party in the upcoming national poll.
He added that some of these people had joined the Democratic People’s Movement (DPM) that was formed by David after he quit the NNP in the face of a barrage of attacks from former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell who backed Pierre and not David as his successor as Political Leader.
He said the intention of NDC is not only to defeat Pierre at the polls but to exert tremendous pressure on her to remain totally inside St Andrew South-east and not venture out to assist other NNP candidates.
The source identified Fullerton as “a political beast” when it comes to campaigning.
He recalled that NDC had lost the St Andrew South-east seat to NNP by close to 1000 votes in the 1999 general election but four years later Fullerton, a former Inspector of Police, was able to win the seat for Congress by close to 500 votes.
The Congress insider told THE NEW TODAY that NDC is confident that its work against the Opposition Leader would result in the defeat of Pierre and victory for Sen. Andrew who has already been endorsed as the Candidate for the election.
The NDC was expected Thursday night to select its candidate to contest the St Patrick East constituency in the upcoming general elections.
The two candidates are to be offering themselves to party members for the position after the Constituency Branch did not give the green light to Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall to contest the seat that he won in the 2022 national poll.
One of the contenders is a Secondary School principal and the other person has been identified as a female who served in the Parliamentary Office of Minister Cornwall but resigned a few weeks ago.
She has been under attack for allegedly undermining Cornwall in association with a medical doctor from the Constituency.
A party insider said that the Principal was the overwhelming favourite to win last night’s vote as he was said to be more impressive than his challenger before the Screening Committee of the party.
The NDC is nearing the completion of its Candidate screening process with the party near to selecting the Candidate for the St George North-west constituency.
One of the contenders – the recently retired primary school principal Nigel DeGale on Sunday night made his debut on the NDC platform as he appeared as a speaker at a “pocket meeting” held in Hope Vale in the St George South-east constituency of Health Minister Phillip Telesford.
DeGale who is originally from Cherry Hill in St George North-west has been living in Hope Vale for the past 28 years.
The retired School Principal became a card-bearing member of Congress when he signed up a few weeks ago in Telesford’s constituency.
He is tipped to get the nod over Dr Malachy Dottin, the Chairman of the NDC branch in North-west.
Dottin has already started his campaign but a few persons whom he approached for support have pledged to vote for DeGale who is seen as the more popular candidate among the people.