 |
| |
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION WATCH - Councillors embrace new roles as MPs (11/28/2007)
Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
Four former councillors have moved from the parish councils to the House of Representatives, a move they have each embraced.
The four are the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Robert Montague, the former Mayor of Port Maria and now Member of Parliament (MP) for Western St. Mary; the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Colin Fagan, former deputy Mayor of Portmore and MP for South East St. Catherine; Franklyn Witter, former JLP Mayor of Black River and MP for St. Elizabeth South East and Natalie Neita-Headley, the new PNP representative for East Central St. Catherine.
Mr. Montague has been given the task of completing the process of local government reform and will play an active role in the move to entrench local government within the constitution.
At age 40, he has been councillor for the Carron Hall division since 1990 and Port Maria Mayor since March 2003. He was appointed to the latter post after the JLP landslide victory in the last local government elections.
But for Mr. Montague, being councillor was more his dream than being an MP.
“Today is a very sad day for me because today I cease being a councillor,” he told The Gleaner on Nomination Day. “When you are a councillor there is that intimate reaction with people and communities. You have that personal one-on-one, which you don’t get as a MP, no matter how you try.”
CALLED BY THE PEOPLE
Mr. Montague said he was forced to relinquish his post because the people encouraged him to run as Member of Parliament. “The people demanded that I step down to be a Member of Parliament,” he said. “If you are in representation, the voice and will of the people and the voice of God, you will have to obey.”
In the 2003 local government election, Mr. Witter won the Junction division in St. Elizabeth, which filliped him to the post of mayor. But for the former teacher, his eyes were always set on the House of Representatives.
“I was always looking in that direction,” he said. “It is like a dream come true. That was where my focus was in the first place.”
But this dream did not come through until September when he polled 9,064 votes over PNP candidate Norman Horne to carry home the seat for the JLP. Mr. Witter had previously contested the seat in the 1997 and 2002 elections, losing both times.
But for the new MP, while he no longer wears his mayoral robe, he is fitting quite comfortable, as backbencher in Parliament. “It is challenging, but I have no regrets,” he told The Gleaner.
When Portmore became a municipality in 2003, Mr. Fagan entered history as its first deputy mayor. The 50-year-old has climbed the political ladder from being councillor for the Edgewater division in Portmore to Member of Parliament for South East St. Catherine.
Mr. Fagan replaces Dr. Paul Robertson as MP for the constituency. He brings to the constituency his expertise as an educator and businessman.
A past student of Holmwood Technical High, Mr. Fagan grew up in Manchester.
He has served as chairman of the Portmore City Council. He has also served as treasurer/manager for the Jamaica Welfare Co-operative Credit Union and regional vice-president for Jaycees of Jamaica. He also worked with the National Youth Service.
Mr. Fagan sees this political move as a natural transition, which he has been looking forward to for some time. This transition, he said, is very timely as there is a shift in the policy where MPs would get more allocation according to Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
Being on THE OTHER SIDE
“I am expecting that these things will become a reality. I am a bit disappointed (that) I am coming in at a time when it is not my government (in power) because the culture of the politics suggests you are starved in opposition,” he said. “If what the Prime Minister is saying is anything to go by that should not be a problem.”
Ms. Neita-Headley was a councillor for the Lauriston division in St. Catherine.
She gained 7,466 votes to her JLP opponent Leslie Campbell’s 6,183. An Independent candidate, Ainsworth Campbell, received 72 votes.
She said she enjoyed her nine-year tenure as councillor, but was looking forward to doing more in her new role. “There is now the opportunity to be involved in making legislative changes and being engaged in policy development,” she told The Gleaner.
The 39-year-old is a human resource consultant for Omni Industries Limited, with nine years’ experience in the field. She has a bachelor’s degree in the social sciences with a minor in economics, and a master’s degree in labour relations from State University of New York.
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
