BartlettTHERE WILL be several new faces in Parliament when sittings resume following the October 16 general election which was won by the People's National Party (PNP).
Among them is St. Aubyn Bartlett, a medical practitioner, who will be sitting on the Opposition benches of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). He earned the right to do so after defeating Colin Campbell, former Information Minister in the last PNP administration, for the Eastern St. Andrew seat. By doing so, he has unseated the man who had defeated his older brother, Edmund, in the 1993 election.
Both he and his brother will be among the 26 Opposition MPs who will form part of the 60-seat Parliament where the PNP holds the majority with 34 seats.
Dr. Bartlett won the seat previously held by his brother by polling 5,558 votes, 502 more than the 5,056 that were cast for Mr. Campbell. A newcomer to representational politics, Dr. Bartlett, a veterinary surgeon, was previously best known for his work with race horses at Caymanas Park.
He was born on March 14, 1956 in the small district of Jane Marks, Westmoreland. His education began at Georges Plain Primary School, Savanna-la-Mar Junior Secondary and Knocklava Agricultural School. He went on to the Jamaica School of Agriculture, graduating with a Diploma in Agriculture and promptly went to work with the Veterinary Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Dr. Bartlett served as a Veterinary Assistant in the parishes of Manchester and Clarendon for five years. During that period he co-founded the Jamaica Association of Animal and Veterinary Public Health Assistants and served as vice president for three years.
In 1982, he entered Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama where he pursued the BSc. in animal science. He was accepted to the School of Veterinary Medicine to pursue the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) while still in graduate school. He graduated in 1989 with both the D.V.M and M.Sc. in animal science.
In 1990 Dr. Bartlett returned to Jamaica to work with the Jamaica Racing Commission as its regulatory veterinarian. He was appointed to the post of senior veterinarian and head of the Commission's department of veterinary services in 1994, the post he currently occupies.
The newcomer to Parliament has developed and runs the Commission's trainers' training programme and assists with other industry education programmes. He was instrumental in devising plans which enabled the free movement of horses between Jamaica and other Caribbean islands to facilitate inter-regional racing.
A member of the Central Executive Committee of the JLP, Dr. Bartlett is married with four children.
