With these words, 51-year-old David Gill accepted his nomination last night as the Barbados Labour Party's (BLP) candidate for St Michael South Central.

Gill, nominated by branch member Ernesta Yarde and seconded by Norma Caddle, emerged as the lone candidate after lawyer Arthur Holder withdrew his nomination.

More than 200 people crowded into Erdiston Primary School for the nomination, one of a few the BLP scheduled for this month and September as it continues preparing for general elections.

In his acceptance speech, Gill listed among his priorities trying to get the Government to launch a major housing project and school in his constituency.

He admitted that there were several schools in the area, but "we do not have a housing development, as many of the other urban communities have".

Other priorities would be sports and educational programmes for the youths – especially a reading programme – and a better deal for the "differently able" and the elderly, he told the gathering.

Commenting on his opponent's late withdrawal, he declared: "There is no problem between me and Arthur Holder." But he said he felt "a tinge of sadness" that Holder did not show up for yesterday's meeting.

He told his constituents he hoped "the comrade does not call it quits" in politics. He suggested Holder set his sights on being the candidate for one of the BLP constituencies where there was a vacancy.

Several prominent BLP figures turned out for the nomination and spoke on Gill's behalf, among them Minister of Social Transformation Trevor Prescod, Minister of Commerce Senator Lynette Eastmond, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Joseph Atherley, and chief executive officer of the BLP David "Joey" Harper. General secretary William Duguid supervised the nomination, also witnessed by Government senators Tyrone Barker and Sandra Husbands.

Eastmond said she and Gill had one thing in common: "Both of us have to recapture seats that rightfully belong to the Barbados Labour Party."

Gill won the St Michael South Central seat in 1999, but lost it in 2003 to the Democratic Labour Party's Richard Sealy. (TY)