Voters Heading to the Polls for NESA By-Election

Registered voters of North East St. Ann will head to the polls today to choose their next member of parliament.

The Jamaica Labour Party’s, JLP, Matthew Samuda, the United Independent’s Congress Chase Neil, and independent candidate, David Fritz Anderson, are vying for the seat that became vacant on September 3 following the resignation of Marsha Smith.

Mahiri Stewart goes over the timeline of events.

The governing JLP has been haemorrhaging support in North East St. Ann for the last few years. 

Smith had replaced JLP stalwart Shahine Robinson as the party’s caretaker for the constituency in May 2020, following Robinson’s death.

But support for MP Smith quickly waned. She faced pressure from her own supporters, who protested against her, calling for her removal.

Smith officially walked away as MP for the constituency on September 3, 2024. This made the North East St. Ann seat, one held by the JLP since March 2001, vacant.

The following day, Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a surprise appearance at a post cabinet media briefing to announce that a by-election would be held on September 30 to determine the constituency’s next MP.

Nomination day for the by-election was set for September 11. 

Following the prime minister’s announcement, the opposition People’s National Party, PNP, declared that it would not be contesting the North East St. Ann by-election or any other by-elections held in the lead up to the next general election.  The next general elections are due next year.

PNP president Mark Golding described the prime minister’s move as a slap in the face of the electorate.

Nomination Day came, and outside of Samuda, independent candidate David Fritz Anderson, who is also called ‘Five Pound’, was confirmed as a nominee on the ballot. But by the close of Nomination Day proceedings on September 11, there were three candidates.

Despite initially struggling to find ten registered voters from the constituency needed to complete the nomination process, Chase Neil of the United Independent’s Congress, eventually became the third candidate for the seat.

Residents of North East St. Ann will elect their choice today. Will the Samuda continue the JLP’s dominance in the constituency it has held for 23 years?

The findings from the Nationwide/Bluedot Polls powered by Total Tools have revealed that the PNP has the upper hand in St. Ann.  And the party doesn’t even have a candidate on the ballot!

The poll, conducted between September 6 and 19, sampling 1,246 respondents, shows that governing JLP is 10 percentage points down in the parish.

When asked which party’s candidate they would vote for were the general elections to be held today, 36 per cent said the PNP, while 26 per cent said they’d vote JLP.

The Nationwide/Bluedot poll, powered by Total Tools, has a margin of error for these polls of +/- 3 per cent.

Can Samuda hold the seat for the JLP? Or could growing support on the ground for the PNP translate into votes for the UIC’s Chase Neil, and independent candidate, David Fritz Anderson?

Who will be the new member of parliament for North East St. Ann?