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Osordo Bennett at his arraignment in July 2017.(iWN photo)
Osordo Bennett at his arraignment in July 2017.(iWN photo)
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A Rillan Hill man who beat a 2017 charge of possession of 105 lbs of marijuana is the only independent among the 33 candidates nominated to contest the Nov. 5 general elections.

Osordo Edwardo Bennett, aka “Swardo”, 34, of Rillan Hill will contest the South Leeward seat in a three-way race.

Bennett, a seaman, along with retiree Mineva G. Glasgow, a Questelles resident and candidate for the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP), will attempt to unseat Nigel “Nature” Stephenson, of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Stephenson, a politician and former teacher, is seeking a third consecutive five-year term in office.

Both the ULP and the NDP have each presented a full slate of 15 candidates, while the SVG Green party is contesting two seats. 

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There are two other three-way races.

Harmony Hall resident, Ivan O’Neal, an economist and leader of the SVG Green Party, will make yet another bid to win the East St. George seat.

This election, O’Neal is joined by first-time candidate, the NDP’s Laverne Hazel Velox, of Villa, in their separate bids to prevent lawyer Camillo Michael Gonsalves, of Ratho Mill, from securing a second term.

And, in North Central Windward, the Green Party’s Kadmiel McFee, an economist, of Bon Homme, along with the NDP’s Chieftain Jemel Neptune, self-employed, of Byera Hill, will lock horn with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.

Neptune is a first time candidate, while McFee is making his second bid to unseat Gonsalves, who has been representing that consistency since 1994 and is seeking his fifth term as prime minister.

In North Windward, the NDP has fielded a new candidate, educator Shevern John, of Owia, in its bid to prevent agriculturalist, Montgomery Daniel, of Sandy Bay, from securing a fifth term.

Another new candidate is the NDP’s standard bearer in South Central Windward, lawyer Israel Randolph Bruce, of Cane Garden, who will try to prevent another lawyer, Saboto Scofield Caesar, of San Souci, for securing a third term.

Human resources management consultant Noel Trevor Dickson, of Stubbs, will make another bid to win South Windward for the NDP. He is facing off with Alpheus Frederick Stephenson, a politician, of Bridgetown, who is seeking a third term.

Meanwhile, 22 years after he was defeated as MP for Marriaqua, Randolph Bernard Wyllie, an environmentalist, of Freeland, will try to stop the ULP’s St. Clair Emmanuel “Jimmy” Prince, of Rivulet, from securing a second term.

West St. Gorge is a race between two first-time candidates, as Curtis Magreror King, an educator, of Belair, is trying to hold on the seat, which the ULP has held since 1998.

He faces a challenge from the NDP’s Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, a lawyer and former senator, of Prospect. 

The ULP’s Luke Browne, a politician, will make his third attempt at the East Kingstown seat.

This time, the Cane Garden resident, is coming up against a first-time candidate, economist Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, an economist, in the constituency that the NDP has held since 1984.

In Central Kingstown, another newcomer, accountant Dominic Seon. T. Sutherland, of Kingstown Park, the ULP’s candidate, is hoping to foil St. Claire Augustus Leacock’s third-term attempt.

Leacock, a Dorsetshire Hill resident, is a management consultant.

The ULP’s Deborah C.K. Alexander-Charles, an educator of Lowmans Leeward, will make her second attempt at becoming MP for West Kingstown.

She is trying to prevent Daniel E. Cummings, a politician, of Redemption Sharpes, from securing a third term.

Meanwhile, in Central Leeward, Benjamin P. Exeter, an information technology consultant, of Layou, is hoping to win the seat for the NDP, on this, his second attempt.

The ULP has held Central Leeward since 1994 and Orando L.J. Brewster, a politician of Layou, a first-time candidate, is hoping to retain the seat for the party.

In North Leeward, lawyer Carlos James, of Cane Hall, will make his second attempt to recapture the seat for the ULP.

The incumbent, Roland Urias Cuthbert Matthews, a businessman, of Petit Bordel, is seeking a third term in office.

In the Northern Grenadines, Godwin Elliot Loraine Friday, of Belmont, Bequia, a lawyer and politician, will be seeking a fifth term, even as he makes his first attempt to become prime minister.

Friday is representing in the district that has remained a bastion of the NDP for four decades. 

His challenger is fellow villager, ULP’s Carlos Maxford Williams, a civil servant, who is making his first outing at the polls.

And, in the Southern Grenadines, Edwin Snagg, a businessman, of Clifton Union Island, is hoping to win, having already endured five consecutive defeats.

He will come up against the NDP’s Terrance Ollivierre, an educator, of the same community, who is seeking a fifth consecutive term.