https://proudstars.blogspot.com/2016/01/founder-of-united-independents-congress.html
Founder of the United Independents’ Congress and candidate for St Elizabeth North Eastern Joseph L Patterson (right) says he intends to bring change to the political process in Jamaica. At left is his public relations directoIn fact, he said the infighting among PNP supporters should be seen as a positive. “We have a situation where a very strong political party is saying we would like to give you somebody to represent you. The people are saying, no we want to choose our own representative. That is a watershed moment for Jamaica, one for which we should be proud. It so happens that I am in the constituency and the people have turned to me as the person they want to represent them,” he added.
Patterson, who expressed remarkable confidence in his ability to win enough votes to take the seat from the PNP, argued that most third parties announce their entrance with a “nice big press conference”, only to swiftly fade away, but that the UIC’s approach is to start at the bottom.
“We will ‘fade in’. After a little while you will see more and more of the UIC. Our principles will take hold as we connect with the Jamaican people at the grassroots level. I really enjoy spending time with the people in the community. We are not grandstanders, we are not profilers. Our goal is to connect with the people in their homes, in third communities and win this election one vote at a time,” he stated.
Patterson, a chartered accountant and businessman who has lived in Canada for a number of years and returned to Jamaica in 2011, said he has no intention to lose, but that even if the results turned out to be otherwise he is committed to the UIC’s cause of “good governance for a better Jamaica”. “On the day of the election, before the election and after the election I will continue to work to bring about that objective in Jamaica,” he stated.
By all accounts Patterson is not expected to have an easy time of winning over supporters in the constituency, as supporters of sitting MP, Raymond Pryce have been pushing back harder than ever at the move to have Santa Cruz businessman Evon Redman represent the party in the general elections the date for which, it is highly anticipated, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller will shortly announce. Pryce announced late last year that he would withdraw his candidacy, on the heels of an injunction secured by former Mayor of Black River Daphne Holmes – who supports Pryce — barring the party from holding a conference to select a candidate in the constituency.
Even then, supporters of Pryce continued to push for him to be the candidate and two weeks ago blocked roads in the constituency. last week dozens were bussed to the party’s headquarters in Kingston where they demanded that Pryce be reinstated as their candidate. Their behaviour, however, upset the party’s executive which threatened to take strong action against the one-term MP. he subsequently resigned as deputy general secretary, but pledged his continued support for the PNP.
PNP supporters in St Elizabeth North East, however, remain adamant that they don’t want Evon Redman to be their candidate and have called on the top brass of the party to instead install Mayor of Black River Councillor Everton Fisher as their standard bearer in the constituencyr, Mark Cameron.
THE United Independents’ Congress (UIC)candidate for St Elizabeth North East, Joseph Patterson, has dismissed suggestions that he has only stepped in to capitalise on the discord amongst comrades in the constituency over the Peoples’ National Party (PNP) candidacy for the upcoming general elections.
Patterson told yesterday’s
Jamaica Observer’s Monday Exchange that, “God works in mysterious ways”, and that it sometimes takes party squabbling for people to “recognise that something is definitely wrong”.
