Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and People's National Party representative for North East Manchester, Paul Lyn, on the campaign trail on Thursday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
PRIME MINISTER Portia Simpson Miller flew into North East Manchester Thursday afternoon to boost Paul Lyn's chances of ending Audley Shaw's 14-year reign as Member of Parliament for the constituency.
And even before she left the constituency, People's National Party (PNP) supporters there were hopeful that the party would rescue the seat in the general election that becomes due by October 2007.
Hundreds, in the opinion of one policeman, or thousands, according to the Prime Minister, braved narrow and winding, bad roads to show support for Mr. Lyn, a newcomer to representational politics.
Huge motorcade
"Give me Paul," Mrs. Simpson Miller told party faithfuls as the huge motorcade moved through the communities of Hybernia, Devon, Clonis, Good Content, Harry Watch, Duncaster, Craig Hill, and into Christiana.
If Lyn is to win the seat, he will have to overturn a 858-vote majority on Mr. Shaw who first won the seat in 1993 by a margin of 795, which he extended to 1,397 in 1997 when the PNP swept 50 of the 60 parliamentary seats.
For those who came out to support Mr. Lyn on Thursday, a wind of change is blowing across the constituency and if Mrs. Simpson Miller has her way, the home boy will be numbered among the elected members that will form the new Parliament.
Supporters, while not overly confident, said the signs were encouraging for a Lyn win. One man, claiming to have voted for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the past, said: "All man a yard (Audley Shaw) do a talk an him nuh talk fi him constituency, him talk fi Jamaica and forget wi."
Another woman says she hopes Mr. Lyn wins because "man a yard a non-performer and him must go. Wi can't tek it nuh more," she told The Gleaner.
While support for Mr. Lyn in the Manchester hills looked encouraging, a close look at the crowd suggests that they were not all from the constituency as some wore T-shirts for Richard Azan, MP for North West Clarendon, and Peter Bunting, the PNP's charge in Central Manchester.
When Mrs. Simpson Miller addressed a huge crowd in Christiana, at the culmination of the motorcade, she said she had heard of several problems and promised to address them, while noting that they could not all be solved at the same time.
