Sniper Prophet gives thanks for 17 votes

Independent candidate Jahmar 'Sniper Prophet' Watson says he is thanking all 17 of his supporters who voted for him in Wednesday's general election in the St Andrew South West constituency.

Speaking with THE WEEKEND STAR on Thursday, he pledged to hold true to his promise of assisting the less-fortunate in the constituency, but added that he is "unable to give 100 per cent".

"I have already started to go around and thank persons for their support. I am also meeting up with the youths and so on to get everything sorted out. I didn't win, but I want to thank the persons from Back-To (Majesty Gardens) and I am still going to help persons to start their business and so on," Watson said.

He added, "I will still go ahead and do for them what I had promised, but I let them know that because I didn't win the election, it would not be a 100-per-cent assistance, but more like 50 per cent because I wouldn't have access to the resources to make it a 100 per cent.

The St Andrew South West seat has remained under the control of the People's National Party (PNP) for almost five decades.

Watson had promised to rattle the political seat, but was barely able to cause a tremor to PNP Chairman Dr Angela Brown Burke who fortified her dominance in Wednesday's election, polling 8,575 votes, compared to the Jamaica Labour Party's Maureen Lorne, who received 583.

'GOOD' POLITICAL DEBUT

Despite the loss, Watson described his debut political experience as 'good' stating that he believes that his late start at campaigning contributed to his defeat.

"Being my first time, the experience was very good. I got good feedback from the people, but I believe that the timing of me going out to campaign was pretty close to the election ... although I had let the public know that I was interested in going into politics since 2023. Most people did not hear about me running and some of them said if they knew they wouldn't have voted for that side. I will be going back next election, but next time around I will [start] campaigning much earlier," the self-described prophet said.

He added that he was at a disadvantage because he refused to purchase votes, making reference to a corrupt system whereby politicians pay persons to vote for them.

"People are just die-hard and people want the change, but sometimes it's the influence. Some people are just caught up into getting money to vote and I believe that it was one of my disadvantages. I don't intend to go down that road to give people money for their vote. I just want to nurture them out of that mindset," Watson said.