Independent candidate Lloyd Gillings boasts he will receive 3,500 votes to win in Trelawny Southern

Independent candidate Lloyd 'Mozy' Gillings is predicting history will be created in today's by-election in Trelawny Southern, with him securing 3,500 votes to win the seat and send the Jamaica Labour Party's Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert into political retirement.

Gillings, who won two local elections in the Albert Town division on the JLP ticket before defecting to the People's National Party, cast his ballot at the Albert Town Primary School on Friday morning.

“History will be created in South Trelawny today, and I am confident that I will win the seat safely,” Gillings said.

According to him, his opponent, Dalrymple-Philibert, has done a disservice to the people of Trelawny Southern, having walked away from the constituency only to seek re-election.

“I think it is unfair for South Trelawny for her to just walk out of the seat and walk back in,” said Gillings, who lost to Dalrymple-Philibert in the 2020 general elections.

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Dalrymple-Philibert resigned as the constituency's member of parliament at the same time she stepped down as Speaker of the House of Representatives in September 2023 amid a damning Integrity Commission report.

Just over 25,000 electors are eligible to cast their  ballots in 96 polling stations across the Trelawny Southern constituency.

In the September 3, 2020 general elections Dalrymple-Philibert polled 7, 109 votes; Gillings received 3, 025; and Richard Sharpe, an Independent candidate polled 25 votes. 

- Albert Ferguson