People’s National Party (PNP) legislator Lisa Hanna is seeking to justify her absence from Thursday’s (February 10) ceremonial opening of parliament, saying that she chose to be in her constituency.

Hanna made the clarification in a classy Friday clap back to a subtweet where a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporter, @YaniqueJLambert, claimed to have seen the MP on her way to a supermarket.

“Mi a shot it go supermarket and buck up inna Lisa Hanna on my way there. Swear she deh farrin cus she never deh Parliament,” Lambert began.

“I honestly didn’t expect to see here just casually driving around Kingston when today a big day for Parliament (sic),” the digital marketer added.

In response, the opposition spokesperson for foreign affairs indicated that given a choice by oragnisers to limit the number of persons gathered at Parliament, she decided to spend the day in St Ann.

According to Hanna, MP for the South East St Ann constituency, maybe her ‘sighting’ in Kingston was around the time she was leaving the capital.

“Perhaps when you saw me “casually driving”, I was en route to my constituency. MPs were asked to volunteer to be absent from the ceremonial opening in a effort to reduce the numbers in the chambers amid the pandemic, so I volunteered (sic),” Hanna replied.

“Let’s use our platforms for good and not “casually” go around perpetuating narratives that are totally untrue. I wish you well,” the MP added.

Her social media pages also bore testament to Hanna’s claim, as images of a brief joint tour with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) showed Hanna and other officials meeting with constituent farmers.

The politician also highlighted a housing solutions project to give single mothers in South East St Ann keys to their own homes.

“Many of the requests I receive are from single mothers who need their own homes. The reasons vary. However, sometimes life just throws a curve ball to their dreams and overall development. We’re constructing five two-bedroom homes for our women and their families under our new social housing programme from the Ministry of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment, and Climate Change. These homes are located in McNie, Cowley, York, Alderton, and Rural Retreat. Today, I visited Andrea, whose house we are completing, and she is ecstatic as she makes her final preparations to move in,” Hanna said.

In what was a drama-filled start for the PNP at Gordon House, Opposition MPs had a tense standoff with JLP-turned-independent representative George Wright, who attempted to march alongside Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s small entourage, to his chagrin.

• READ: Not wanted! On march to Gordon House, George Wright gets cold shoulder from PNP MPs