The constituency of St Thomas Eastern was fixed in 1944, when the parish was divided into two constituencies namely – Western and Eastern.
The first elected Member of Parliament was the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) IWA Barrant, who received 8,461 votes to defeat independent candidates Clifford H Murray and Albert Henry Robertson, who polled 704 and 836, respectively.
The People’s National Party (PNP) gained its first hold on the seat in 1976, when Violet Thompson defeated the JLP’s Lynden Newland 6,602 votes to 6,292. The JLP came roaring back in the 1980 election, when Pearnel Charles whipped Winston Jones 10,543 votes to 4,305. He held on to the seat for two additional terms before being defeated by Dr Fenton Ferguson in 1993, polling 5645 to the victor’s 7,199 votes.
Ferguson has been the MP since then, most recently defeating the JLP’s Dr Patrece Charles-Freeman 8,018 votes to 7,545 in 2011.
