Garwin Davis, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Palmer

General Secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Karl Samuda, said yesterday that Vando Palmer's resignation as candidate for the People's National Party (PNP) in Central Manchester is indicative of a party that is "desperately trying to salvage what's left of a sinking ship."

According to Samuda, the PNP had resigned itself to the fact that Palmer was in danger of losing the seat to Sally Porteous and was simply trying to reverse "an irreversible situation."

"They know that Vando Palmer was in for the whipping of his life so they had to do something," Samuda said. "We had long expected this and are quite prepared for whoever it is that they may want to now throw at us."

Trailing

The PNP has held the Central Manchester seat since 1989. Prior to that, the seat last exchanged hands (except for the 1983 election which the PNP boycotted) in the 1980 election when the JLP's Sydney Beaumont comfortably won the seat by doubling the votes for the PNP's Winston Jones.

Vando Palmer on Friday announced his withdrawal as the PNP candidate for Central Manchester in the upcoming election. A Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll, conducted a week ago, found that while the

PNP and JLP were dead even at 33 per cent each in electoral standing, the PNP's candidate was trailing his JLP rival in almost every department, including visibility and likeability.

Perhaps most telling was the question as to whom the people of Central Manchester wanted to see as their next Member of Parliament, where Porteous had a comfortable 42 per cent to 30 per cent lead over Palmer.