AND 2020 MAKES 10 UNBEATABLE
Samuda wins record-equalling term
AFTER SEEING his wife, Pauline, crying on election night in 1976, Karl Samuda promised he would never again cause her to endure the sting of defeat at the polls.
Samuda, who was 34 at the time, had competed in his first general election and was soundly beaten by Ken McNeill, the father of Dr Wykeham McNeill, in the contest for St Andrew North West.
“We got a proper thrashing through and through. We were so devastated by the extent of the defeat,” Samuda said.
“Here we were being defeated so outrageously, in a state of emergency. My wife broke down in tears. I turned to her and I said to her, ‘My dear Pauline, you will never have to cry because of a loss by me in any future elections,’and she hasn’t,” Samuda said.
Samuda, 78, said that he began campaigning for the 1980 election three weeks after he lost to McNeill by 1,879 votes.
“Most people thought I had lost track of my senses, but I saw something of a possibility. I was absolutely convinced that if you apply yourself and gain the confidence of the people, they will reward you,” he told The Gleaner.
The move paid dividends, as by 1980 he got 10,529 votes to the PNP’s Carlyle Dunkley’s 4,946, winning by a margin of 5,583. And he has been winning ever since. Thursday’s 3136 -vote win over O’Neil Lynch in St Andrew North Central made it win number 10 for Samuda in general elections. He is now the joint record holder with Edward Seaga and Mike Henry for the most election wins.
Unlike Seaga and Henry, however, Samuda has won elections on the tickets of both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP). After his first three election wins, Samuda was expelled from the JLP in the 1990s. He then joined the PNP, on the invitation of Michael Manley, and in 1993 ran for the party in St Andrew North Central and won by 171 votes over the JLP’s Tom Tavares-Finson. A remorseful 1980: Carlyle Dunkley by 5,583
1983: Unopposed
1989: Shirley-Ann Eaton by 1,873
1993: Tom Tavares Finson by 171
1997: Sonia Rickards (PNP) by 949 votes and
Barbara Clarke of NDM by 3,153 votes 2002: Barbara Clarke by 2,406
2007: Christopher Munroe (PNP) by 2,766 and
Christopher Cousins (Independent) by 6,228 2011: Leanne Phillips by 2,305
2016: Jacqueline Taylor-O’Gilvie by 2,829
2020: O’Neil Lynch by 3136
Samuda later rejoined the JLP and has turned North Central into an impregnable fortress. He continued the winning tradition by beating Sonia Rickards (PNP) by 949 votes and delivering a crushing defeat to Barbara Clarke of the then high-flying National Democratic Movement by 3,153 votes in the 1997 polls, which he ranked as one of his most satisfying victories.
“I felt vindicated for having been expelled by the JLP,”Samuda said, as he reflected on that win. “As I have always said, if you take a man who is a mason and you deny him his craft in one location, he is going to find another place to continue, and
I did, and prevailed, so I feel particularly satisfied that I was able to prove the point that it could be done,”Samuda said.
The farmer, who is a former general secretary of the JLP, said that he learnt the art of politics from Seaga, who he described as “the greatest political teacher”. He also credits his wife for his political success, describing her as a “cornerstone” of support. That assistance includes visiting his constituency office at least three days a week and doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
“I am fortunate because I have had a wife who has been beside me from day one, from before I ran, and then I ran and lost, and after that . ... She takes care of the children, she does the back-toschool (activities), takes care of the elderly, (and) the people who are in need of help” said Samuda, adding that he has a great team of workers in the constituency, some of whom have been around for in excess of 30 years.
“I turned to [my wife] and I said to her, ‘My dear Pauline, you will never have to cry because of a loss by me in any future elections.”