( L - R ) Vaz, Rowe

IF KENNETH Rowe was to stand any chance against Daryl Vaz in Monday's by-election in West Portland, he would have had to win the two divisions with strong support for the People's National Party (PNP) while maximising his votes in the other two.

That was the strategy that Luther Buchanan, his campaign manager, penned and took to the PNP's war room. But try as it did, the PNP could not break the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) hold on the constituency.

Preliminary results had Vaz winning by 2,289 votes. He polled 7,915 to underscore the claim that MP for him means Member of Parliament and 'Mr Portland'.

Swing areas

Not only did Vaz grab the majority of the votes polled in all four divisions, as he did in the 2007 general election, but he also managed to swing traditionally strong PNP areas to the JLP.

In Balcarres, for example, Vaz polled 305 more votes than he did in the 2007 general election. The PNP did manage to secure 22 more votes than it did when Abe Dabdoub was the candidate in 2007, but that division was considered a bastion for the party and one which Rowe would have had to carry to win the seat.

St Margaret's Bay, which had consistently voted for the PNP in the four elections prior to 2007, also went to Vaz.

The PNP is still licking its wounds and reviewing Monday's result before making any detailed comment on its defeat, but one senior official of the party yesterday told The Gleaner that it was "outenumerated, outmanoeuvred and outstrategised".

Maturing election machinery

Of the 718 voters that were enumerated after the 2007 general election, it believed 95 per cent backed the JLP.

Warren Newby, president of the JLP-affiliated young professionals group Generation 2000 (G2K), said the Vaz campaign was a demonstration of the maturing of the JLP's electoral machinery.

According to Newby, the party has made a deliberate attempt to target youngsters for enumeration when they reach 18 years old.

On the campaign trail, the PNP depended on its president, Portia Simpson Miller, to walk the pavement and press flesh as its key strategy with the candidate, Rowe, seeming to hug her shadow on the roadway and even on the stage.

Vaz had the backing of the party's leadership, which made the constituency their second home, while party leader Bruce Golding made frequent stops.

Campaign about work

However, his campaign was about his work in the constituency and not as dependent on his leader.

Vaz branded himself a performer and urged constituents to vote "performance over loyalty".

"The slogan was cleverly crafted and it was an easy sell," Vaz said.

More that 40 street dances took place in the constituency over the past week as JLP supporters sensed victory.

But for every second that the ground troops of the JLP were on the streets trying to win that extra vote, an equal second was spent by a team of technologically savvy persons constantly checking the numbers.

Before the election, some voters, including PNP supporters, had told The Gleaner that in their estimation, Vaz was a good MP and a hard worker.

That was another message which Vaz campaigned on and to which the people answered with a resounding 'yes'.

Vaz also benefited from the 'vex' vote from Portlanders upset with Dabdoub, the PNP's candidate in 2007, who they claim abandoned them when he lost in the general election.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com

How West Portland voted

2007 2009

JLP PNP JLP PNP

St Margaret's Bay 1,485 1,266 1,783 1,206

Hope Bay 1,685 1,445 2,007 1,283

Buff Bay 2,290 1,889 2,303 1,682

Balcarres 1,517 1,433 1,822 1,455

Preliminary figures