Jamaica's two major political parties are on Friday having contrasting reactions to Thursday's by-election in the Cassia Park Division of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC).
Beverly Prince who represented the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won the election, receiving 1,576 votes while the People's National Party's (PNP) Sheryn Bromfield garnered 1,142 votes. Andrew Holness, Leader of the JLP and Opposition Leader, views his party's victory as a sign of a decline in confidence in the governing People's National Party (PNP).
"It says that the electors, the voters are looking seriously at the performance of the Government and they are also looking at the Opposition and this is an endorsement of the candidate and an endorsement of the work that we have done in the area…"
Meanwhile, the PNP will be analyzing the results of the election. Julian Robinson, Deputy General Secretary, told RJR News the Party will try to identify areas where it may have failed.
"We will sit down, we will reflect on this, we will look at what we did well and what we did not. As a political party we will bounce back from this , we still control the parish councils, we still control Central Government , but every election is an important point to learn from and we will learn from this," he said.
Political Commentator Shalman Scott says the results of the by-election should be a wake-up call for the People's National Party and its political representatives.
"They need to recognize that there is the possibility that seats that were gained can be lost and so there are some persons who have taken on an attitude of a victor syndrome, that they need to remember how the Jamaican people have expressed their level of political sophistication" Scott said.
The Electoral Office of Jamaica will conduct the final count of the ballots on Friday morning.
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