Ross Sheil and Claude Mills, Staff Reporters
Deacon Ronald Thwaites, who won the chairmanship for Central Kingston yesterday, defeating incumbent Member of Parliament Victor Cummings. - NORMAN GRINDLEY/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
FORMER MEMBER of Parliament Ronald Thwaites swept aside incumbent Member of Parliament Victor Cummings for the post of constituency chairman in the Central Kingston seat yesterday, raising the stakes in the battle for who will ultimately run as the People's National Party candidate in the next general elections.
"The majority of the delegates have asked me to undertake the primary responsibility of running the constituency; there is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done. He remains the MP for the area, but I will be the one running the constituency," Mr. Thwaites said.
THE FIRST STEP
Asked if this were merely the first step in moving to depose Cummings as MP of Central Kingston, he responded:
"I don't think of it in those terms, that is a choice that the people will have to make."
Mr. Thwaites received 54 delegates votes, 17 more than Cummings in his bid to return to the arena of representational politics. In the meantime, Mr. Cummings vowed to secure the People's National Party (PNP) nomination for the Central Kingston seat despite being deposed yesterday as constituency chairman.
"I am disappointed at the result," Mr. Cummings said yesterday. "But I will not be giving up. I wish that when I wrote to Mr. Thwaites a year ago asking him to work together, that he would have accepted. But he never responded, and now I understand why."
Mr. Cummings is the biological brother of Donald 'Zekes' Phipps, who is a well-known figure from the PNP stronghold of Matthews Lane in downtown Kingston.
Mr. Cummings maintained that he had been a successful MP: "I have been working hard to make sure the schools have enough books and computers and we've increased the number of GSAT passes."
In the meantime, a delegate who chose to remain anonymous painted a grim portrait of the behind-the-scenes power struggles that defined the race, and alleged that there was voter intimidation by 'dons from Tel-a-Viv' and instances of 'open voting'.
ALLEGATIONS DISMISSED
But Mr. Thwaites dismissed the allegations of voter intimidation and other improprieties.
"Both Victor Cummings and myself agreed, along with the deputy secretary (Maureen Webber), that there were no procedural improprieties, so I don't agree with that assertion."
As chairman, Mr. Thwaites will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the constituency, overseeing the two divisions, polling division workers and dealing with administrative matters of the political machinery of the constituency.
Mr. Thwaites had earlier this year informed the PNP that he wanted to regain the seat which he was forced to resign amid a controversy over some of his business dealings. Mr. Cummings took over and won the seat for the PNP during the 2002 election.
