RobinsonHeather Robinson, who quit the South Central St. Catherine seat she held for the People's National Party (PNP) in 1996 over the involvement of criminal elements in the process, has quit another party post for similar reasons.
Miss Robinson resigned as manager of the political campaign of West St. Thomas PNP candidate, Anthony Hylton, on Friday. She says that this was triggered by an incident in which one of Mr. Hylton's youth supporters showed her an illegal gun at a meeting in Seaforth.
According to Miss Robinson, she attended a meeting of the PNP youth group in Seaforth on Thursday. At the end of the meeting, she was asked to meet some youth leaders "one away," or on an individual basis.
She said that when she took one of the young men aside to talk to him, he brought along three friends with him, removed a firearm from his pocket and showed it to her, suggesting that things had to be done through him.
"I wasn't terrified in the sense that you would expect, he didn't point it at me, but it was to show me how bad he was," she said. "I told him, in the best Jamaican language I could, what I thought about people like him."
She said that she also told him that this was the same reason why she had given up representational politics and threatened to leave the constituency and not come back. She said that she reported the matter to the police eventually and resigned as Mr. Hylton's campaign manager, immediately.
In a statement on the matter yesterday, Mr. Hylton said he unequivocally supported the decision of his former campaign manager to report the matter to the police.
He said that while he regretted her decisions, he understood her concerns.
Mr. Hylton also thanked Miss Robinson for the contribution she made to his campaign.
Mr. Hylton is also the Minister of Mining and Energy. Miss Robinson quit the South Central St. Catherine seat in June 1996 after linking one of her councillors with criminal elements in De La Vega City, Spanish Town.
