Neita Robertson faces TOUGH JURY in Portland Western
TRADING IN the customary black and white professional attire and ditching the legal gown bag she has swung over her shoulders for more than 30 years as she headed to court, Valerie Neita Robertson, QC, walked with purpose up Nelson Road in Buff Bay, Portland, last Monday.
Wearing a pair of blue jeans pants, an orange polo shirt and flat slippers, she is gearing up to face the largest jury she has ever encountered in her life. She believes she has a strong case, which she is laying before the 23,247 electors in Portland Western, who will deliver the verdict in her case against Daryl Vaz on September 3.
Neita Robertson is no newcomer to representational politics, having served for several years as a People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Papine division in St Andrew before leaving to concentrate on her career in law.
Making her return to the ballot, the PNP has sent her to Portland Western to wrest the seat from Vaz and return it to the party’s winning column in less than three weeks.
One of the country’s top criminal defence attorneys for many years, Neita Robertson told
The Sunday Gleaner
that she is committed to taking the same methodical preparation, investigation and interrogation of the evidence to her campaign as she seeks to become the first woman to represent the constituency.
She acknowledges that the task won’t be easy.
“It’s formidable, but not insurmountable,” Neita Robertson
told The Sunday Gleaner during a 15-minute break from her campaign as she sat on the steps of the Holiness Church of God on Nelson Road.
The Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Vaz, who has held the seat for three consecutive terms, was first elected in 2007, breaking a four-term hold on the seat by the PNP.
“This is going to take conviction, but I have a great capacity for walking, and I will be here till all 8-9 p.m., and I get a good a good night’s sleep and I start again in the morning,” she said.
Minutes before, she was presenting her case before about 15 young men in a lane. Unlike the court’s jury, they talked back, questioning, challenging, conversing. They, too, were making their case.
Among their concerns was a lack of opportunities in the constituency. As such, many were willing to sell their votes. The price had increased since the last election, they said.
NOT BUYING VOTES
“There is no free and fair election because people are willing to sell their votes. I am not giving out any money, and don’t try to persuade me to do otherwise. That cannot be sustained. Opportunity, hope and self-development is what I am offering so that you can earn for yourself,” said Neita Robertson.
The young men enquired about opportunities for employment, locally and overseas. They bemoaned how the COVID-19 pandemic had crippled their earning power in Portland Western, where agriculture (coffee) and tourism were the mainstays of the rural economy.
“They want hope,” Neita Robertson said as she reflected.
“Many are prepared to work towards providing for themselves. Many are interested in farming and they want the know-how. They want to know about the business of farming – the crops to grow and the markets for the crops,” she continued. “But some are not interested. They just want to sit and rub out their hand middle.”
Neita Robertson said that while coffee farming was a big economic earner, the Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory Authority Act has been penalising small farmers and “only giving certain persons the right to sell coffee”.
Small farmers were no longer able to sell coffee on their own, she claimed, saying they were forced to sell to large farmers at a fixed rate.
It explained the “large-acreage land grabs of agricultural lands”, she said.
Neita Robertson said there was also potential for the development of ecotourism enterprises, and shared the residents’ views that roads and water were also chief concerns.
She said that the PNP machinery in Portland Western had been sputtering for years and getting party supporters to come out to vote this time around is paramount.
“The rebuilding has been very very difficult,” she acknowledged. “There are persons who are very disappointed that the party did not send serious candidates before me, and many key PNP persons have been disengaged. The constituency is deteriorating.”
It was clear she was focusing on municipal divisions which have traditionally backed the PNP despite all four now being represented by the JLP.
As the polls draw nearer, Neita Robertson will be revisiting some key areas in the constituency and has been spending time in Balcarres, a division represented for three decades year by the Hezekiah and Hopeton Molloy fatherson dynasty, which ended in the last municipal elections.
She also plans to make her case to residents of Skibo and Swift River shortly.
“People are fed up of Vaz. They want a change,” Neita Robertson told The
Sunday Gleaner. “I think I have a genuine, loyal good team, and we are rebuilding the constituency. Let’s be factual: it has to be done. I am hoping for a victory.”