Switchers win in Westmoreland

Garfield James and Ian Myles, the two politicians who switched allegiance from the People's National Party (PNP) to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), have been re-elected to the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.

James retained his seat as councillor for the Sheffield division while Myles won the Little London division for the JLP.

Last July, Myles, James and Lawton McKenzie, who were elected on PNP tickets, resigned from the PNP and declared themselves as independent. The men refused to work with Westmoreland Western standard-bearer Ian Hayles.

Based on preliminary results from Monday's election, James beat the PNP's Derrick McKenzie by 184 votes. In the 2016 election, the JLP polled 539 votes when Millicent Whitelock contested the seat for the Labour Party. At the time, James polled 1,058 for the PNP.

In Monday's poll, James polled 1,104 votes to McKenzie's 920. Myles won the Little London division over the PNP's Oliver Reid.

Meanwhile, McKenzie, who contested the Grange Hill division as an independent, failed to secure re-election. The PNP's Warren Lyttleton won the division with 961 votes ahead of the JLP's Basil Thompson, who polled 756 votes.

McKenzie got 293 votes.