Howard Campbell, Sunday Gleaner Writer

HE MAY be a newcomer to politics, but the People's National Party's (PNP) Jermaine Martin says he is not on the ballot to make up numbers for North West St. Andrew.

In fact, the exuberant educator is confident he will unseat long-standing incumbent, Derrick Smith, of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). "I am going to emerge the winner. I have always been an underdog and I have no problem with that," he says. "I have always proven people wrong."

Proving pundits wrong in eight days' time may take some doing for Martin, the 33-year-old principal of the Institute of Academic Excellence (IAE), in St. Andrew.

Smith has been Member of Parliament for North West St. Andrew since 1989, and is generally credited as a solid performer. That, Martin countered, is nothing but perception. "Mr. Smith is what you call a missing MP. He has not been seen by many of the constituents. They see him as a TV man who has no track record," he claims.

Martin is also not daunted by Smith's dossier. In addition to being MP, Smith is a JLP deputy leader and its spokesperson on national security.

The Portland-born Martin tells The Sunday Gleaner he has been working overtime during the past 18 months to get disenchanted PNP backers in Pembroke Hall, Maverley, Patrick City, Havendale and Meadowbrook to vote on the big day.

As many of the larger con-stituencies, North West St. Andrew encompasses middle-class neigh-bourhoods such as Meadowbrook and Pembroke Hall, but areas such as Maverley, are prone to gang violence.

Martin said crime is not the only problem. "Every community has its own concerns and issues, but one thing that is common are bad roads. Nothing has been done to ensure proper infrastructure in the constituency," he lamented.

Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter

If Dean Peart of the People's National Party (PNP) were a local football team and the constituency of North Western Manchester the premier league trophy, he would have begun a dynasty with four straight wins in general elections since 1989.

Furthermore, Peart's father, Ernest, also created a dynasty in that constituency with political victories from 1967 to 1976.

Those are the odds stacked against Timothy Scarlett, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate challenging Peart for the North Western Manchester seat.

Despite these challenges, and more, such as his late entry (June) into the race owing to the death of then candidate Clinton Dietrich in late April, Scarlett is not daunted.

"Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Looking at that, one would get that impression, but that doesn't perturb me," he tells The Sunday Gleaner.

In fact, he continues: "My chances are very good and I am going to win."

Change

Scarlett, who up until Dietrich's death, was Dietrich's campaign manager, believes the people of North Western Manchester want a change.

He also says the poor performance of Peart in the constituency will lead to his victory, and his party's chances of wrestling the seat, which was won by the JLP's Stafford Haughton in 1980. The PNP did not contest the 1983 snap election.

"Now is the time that people are looking for a change. He has failed the constituency in many ways. They are disappointed with his performance; he has not looked after the needs of the people."

Scarlett, who is the head of Power Services Company Ltd., in Mandeville, and who operates a training school, says he hopes to expand on the work he has done there.