By the Constituencies (Boundaries) Order 1966, under Section 67 of the Constitution of Jamaica, the number of constituencies in the parish of St Andrew was increased from six to eight. This warranted a major adjustment of the boundaries in the parish. The constituency of St Andrew South Eastern was therefore formally created in 1967.
The constituency is bounded by the following: From the point where Hope Road meets Half-Way Tree Road at Half-Way Tree Square, easterly along the southern side of Hope Road to where it meets Old Hope Road at Matilda’s Corner. It then goes southerly along the western side of Old Hope Road to where it meets Mountain View Avenue, southerly along the western side of Mountain View Avenue to the Kingston & St Andrew parish boundary at No 51C Mountain View Avenue, westerly along the northern side of the parish boundary to Upper Elleston Road.
From there, it travels northerly along the eastern side of the parish boundary on the eastern side of Upper Elleston Road to Deanery Road, westerly along the southern side of Deanery Road and northerly along the eastern side of Deanery Road where it meets Merrion Road. It continues westerly along the south side of Deanery Road to where it meets Camp Road and South Camp Road, from this point following westerly, northerly and westerly along the northern, eastern, and northern sides of the Kingston & St Andrew parish boundary to where it meets Marescaux Road and North Race Course. It then goes westerly along the northern side of the parish boundary on North Race Course to Torrington Road, westerly along the southern side of Torrington Road to where it meets Slipe Road, northerly along the eastern side of Slipe Road to where it meets Half-Way Tree Road, north westerly along the eastern side of Half-Way Tree Road to where it meets Hope Road at the starting point.
Of the 10 contested parliamentary general elections 1967-2011, the People’s National Party (PNP) has won nine times to the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) one. The JLP’s only victory was in 1980 when Allan Issacs polled 11,207 votes to trounce John Junor, who polled 6,321.
The first Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency was the PNP’s Keble Munn, who defeated the JLP’s Samuel H Reid 7,500 votes to 2,841. Munn overwhelmed Oliver S Solomon (JLP) 7,265 votes to 1,782 in 1972 to retain the seat, but was moved to the St Andrew Eastern seat for the 1976 election. That year, Eric Bell continued the PNP tradition in the constituency by beating Winston Spaulding 6,262 votes to 5,551.
After the loss in 1980, and the 1983 snap election that was boycotted by the PNP, the seat once again went orange in 1989 as Easton Douglas won the next three turns as MP. The first was a 6,444 to 5,371 victory over the JLP’s Ryan Peralto. Independent candidate Jasmin A Brown scored 14 votes.
Douglas defeated Harold Brady (JLP) in 1993 and 1997, before retiring from active politics in 2002. This cleared the way for Maxine Henry-Wilson, then general secretary of the PNP, to keep the seat in her party’s hands. She managed a narrow 4,959 to 4,103 victory over the JLP’s Philip B C Henriques and the NDM/NJA’s Peter Townsend who received 127 votes. Her margin of victory over the JLP’s Joan Gordon Webley in 2007 was a bit more convincing (5,187 to 4,618), but Henry-Wilson retired from politics in 2010, and the current MP, Julian Robinson, was elected in 2011. He scored a comfortable 6,004 to 4,260 victory over the JLP’s Dwight Nelson. The Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party’s (MGPPP) Horace Matthews received 28 votes and independent candidate Byron Patton received 12.
