JLP Central Exec replaces St Margaret’s Bay councillor for impending election

St Margaret’s Bay, West Portland:

The Central Executive of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday confirmed Clyde McKenzie, a schoolteacher, as prospective candidate for the upcoming local government elections, replacing controversial councillor Stephen Williams in the St Margaret’s Bay division of West Portland.

The decision by the Central Executive, which is the highest decision-making body within the JLP, to replace Williams, comes on the heels of a 28-day injunction granted on behalf of the incumbent by the Supreme Court on January 4, 2024, which barred the party from hosting any election in that division.

Daryl Vaz, member of parliament for West Portland, who filed an affidavit in response to the injunction from the Supreme Court last Friday, stated in the document that Williams’ performance has been under scrutiny since 2020, wherein a motion of no confidence was passed against him during a meeting in the St Margaret’s Bay division.

According to the affidavit filed by Vaz, in the course of a meeting on September 18, 2020, the issue of Williams’ leadership was raised and he then invited the 15 members present to vote on whether or not they were in favour of his continuing as councillor and chairman of the St Margaret’s Bay division.

Included in the affidavit is that 11 members voted against Williams continuing as chairman, while four persons voted for him to continue. And so, in light of that vote, the affidavit continued by stating that Williams then told the meeting that he would resign as councillor.

“And this is just one of the incidents wherein the people have reached out to me as their member of parliament about the poor performance of Williams,” Vaz told The Gleaner yesterday.

Vote of no confidence

“I can confirm that I attended the Central Executive meeting this morning (Sunday) and that the Central Executive has appointed Mr Clyde McKenzie for the St Margaret’s Bay division for the upcoming local government election. This is completely separate from the court injunction, which we have responded to, for which I have released the affidavit. I can also confirm that Councillor Williams remains the chairman of the St Margaret’s Bay division.

“You will see clearly from my affidavit, [that] from as far back as 2020, that the executive of the St Margaret’s Bay division had a vote of no confidence against Councillor Williams. Subsequently, I wrote to the party asking them to do an audit, for which they decided to do a poll. And, of course, the poll findings were similar to the sentiment of the executive. And, therefore, it is surprising to me that a sitting councillor of seven years would go to court to block a selection process, the most democratic process that we have in the party,” Vaz added.

Williams, who took the JLP executive to court on the morning of January 4, seeking to block the holding of selection, which could see him being ousted as chairman, had reportedly fallen out of grace with people of the St Margaret’s Bay division.

Meanwhile, Williams, who called a press conference on Sunday, stated that he had not received any official word from the JLP and that he wouldn’t offer any comment in relation to the “so-called appointment” of Clyde McKenzie as the new candidate for the next local government elections.

“I know of a fact that an injunction was granted for 28 days, as of January 4 of this year, and that injunction is still in place and there should be no changes, or no attempt to make any changes, because, of course, that would be a breach or contempt of the court order,” Williams said.

gareth.davis@gleanerjm.com