Minor parties skipping local gov’t elections

At least four minor political parties in Jamaica will be skipping the local government polls on February 26. And should any member decide to run as an independent candidate, at least one will not allow them to use the party’s emblem.

The National Democratic Movement (NDM), Marcus Garvey People’s Political Party (MGPPP), Jamaica Political Movement (JPM) and Left Alliance for National Democracy and Socialism (LANDS) told The Sunday Gleaner that they will forgo the polls.

The leaders said they will instead combine efforts to rally Jamaicans to vote ‘no’ in a referendum looking at the country becoming a republic if it doesn’t speak to directly electing a president.

Prospective candidates from the island’s two main political parties – the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) – are preparing to head to the starting line this Thursday, when nominations will take place for the long-delayed local government elections. But there are early indications that a sprinkling of independent candidates will be among the nominees.

NDM PROTESTING

The once-commanding NDM said it will not field any candidates as a protest against the Andrew Holness administration for not keeping its promise.

“We are disappointed that the prime minister has not kept his word on amending the Constitution and given us the reforms he promised. He promised way back when, that for the first 100 days he would be bringing legislation for fixed elections. He has not. We are very disappointed in that, especially in the second term, where he has a supermajority and no move has been made on that, but they are going after Portmore. It was a lie from the beginning,” NDM General Secretary Michael Williams told The Sunday Gleaner.

He said that after the February 26 elections, the NDM will collaborate with other political movements to step up its protests for meaningful reforms, “ … rather than the farce now going on in the Constitutional Reform Committee”.

“We are pretty sure that we are on good grounds for the election of a head of state on its own ballot. The people want that. They also want their member of parliament to live in the constituency so that they can understand their needs. But this committee is hell-bent on wasting money to replace the King with a ceremonial head of state – and call him a president – but who will be useless,” Williams argued.

He also noted that under the PNP, legislation was enacted for the residents of Portmore to directly elect their mayor, but this is yet to be extended to other parishes.

The NDM was launched in 1995 and contested the 1997 general election, securing nearly five per cent of the national votes. Had the NDM stuck to what it believed in, and won at least one seat in the Parliament, Williams believes the reform process would be more advanced.

Williams said that should any member of the NDM choose to be an independent candidate in the local government elections, they would not be permitted to use the party’s emblem.

LANDS FOCUSED ON BASE-BUILDING

Christophe Simpson is a self-identified Marxist-Leninist who serves as the chairman and first secretary of Jamaica LANDS, an emerging political movement sustained by a network of leftists across Jamaica and in the diaspora.

Noting that the political climate is hostile to anything outside of the mainstream, he said the party will focus on base-building.

“LANDS isn’t focused on electoral politics, even though we are a political party. We are organising our base, based on common values and principles, and we make these clear and make policy recommendations, and if it comes to it, we protest and so on. But we don’t field candidates directly, because that is not our aim at the moment,” Simpson told The Sunday Gleaner.

“Our members are free to run as independents, and even if they want to run on another party’s ticket, they would be free to do so. But we would [need to] have some discussions.”

Acknowledging that the local elections are easier to penetrate than the parliamentary one, he said there have been successes for individuals running as independent candidates in the past. Electors, he said, vote for a party and not individuals.

“There is a disincentive for voting for independent candidates and third parties for two reasons. The first is that even if such a candidate wins, they do not have a chance of forming the government and will not have the impact needed to force change,” Simpson said.

“The other major issue is funding. The two major parties have big money funding them. You are not going to attract the funds needed to run a party, and you stand no chance without capital,” he argued, adding that while in other countries it was reasonable to expect some benefits if an independent candidate wins, in Jamaica, there is a drought of resources at the local level.

Third parties, he suggested, also do not have the organised base as the traditional parties.

Part of LANDS’s goals, he said, is to push for the direct election of senators.

JPM A MOVEMENT

“We are not a party; we are a movement. We are not fielding any candidates because it’s a trap. The system is prepared for no other entrants. They write the laws for their parties and that is the trap,” Carlos Daley of the JPM declared to The Sunday Gleaner.

He said the requirement for individuals to run in third parties was onerous and was almost prohibitive.

Daley said JPM was in dialogue with other stakeholders regarding much-needed reforms.

MGPPP ZONES IN ON CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

Antwayne Campbell said the MGPPP will also not field any candidates for the upcoming elections.

“The answer would be no,” he said.

“The party has been getting a lot of fight, even after the death of Marcus Garvey. Everything we tried has been blocked and sabotaged and that is why we are pushing for constitutional reform so that power can be redirected to the people. We will be pushing heavily for an executive president, for someone who is directly elected by the people. The Don Anderson polls said that is what the people want,” Campbell told The Sunday Gleaner.

MGPPP was originally named Garvey’s People’s Political Party (PPP), which was formed in 1929.

“We are just waiting for the local government elections to be completed so that we can campaign towards the constitutional reform,” Campbell said, noting that MGPPP is part of a coalition.

“We realise that we cannot do it on our own. If we operate as a one-man band, then we won’t win. We have been having meetings the entire 2023 and we are in the final stages of developing an alliance with different third parties to campaign around an executive presidency,” he said.

He added, “We want people to see the alliance as the alternative.”

PATMORE: RUN AS INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

Meanwhile, Paul Patmore, who was elected as an independent councillor in 2012 in the Lorrimers division in Trelawny and served a single term in the parish council, called his tenure successful, despite alleging heavy sabotage.

He is advising others to consider going the route of being independent candidates.

“In parish council election, people vote for what they want and what is happening in their communities. It’s more personal at this level. And when you are an independent candidate, individuals from both sides will support you in the communities because they are not as partisan,” he shared with The Sunday Gleaner.

“When it’s the general election, they will vote party and leader, but it’s more the person in the local government elections.”

According to him, more independent-minded persons should be seeking to tap into the 65 per cent of Jamaicans who have opted not to vote as “50 per cent of that number will get them elected”.

Too many persons, he said, were entering politics for the wrong reasons, especially those who have fallen out of grace with their parties.

“I stayed there as an independent candidate for four years without joining the JLP or the PNP. It was never the plan. Because of that, despite what I was able to achieve, I could have helped more and done more but my tenure was heavily sabotaged. Any project I did was stifled,” said Patmore, who operates a funeral parlour in the parish.

“But I can say that politics is very good and I don’t want persons to be discouraged from politics because of the behaviour of some of our MPs and other politicians,” he added, urging Jamaicans not to allow politicians to divide them.

“When you are independent of green or orange, there will be no one else to jump on their campaign trucks. Come election time, they run you down and forget that you have been hungry for four and a half years. Education is key, but the politics keep the people uneducated,” said Patmore.

In the 2016 local government polls, none of the 24 independent candidates facing the electorate was successful, with only two garnering any noteworthy support.

Vernon Williams, who ran as an independent candidate in the Moneague division in St Ann South East, secured 32 per cent – or 789 – of the votes polled, coming closest to victory. The JLP’s Delroy Kelly (34.2 per cent or 837 votes) won the division, edging out the incumbent councillor, the PNP’s Lloyd Garrick (33.3 per cent or 817 votes).

Over in the Claremont division in the same constituency, independent challenger Wayne Simpson received 687 – or 29.3 per cent – of the votes polled in the second-closest battle. Although he secured more votes than the JLP’s Maurice Walters (629 votes or 26.8 per cent), he failed to catch the runaway winner the PNP’s Lambert Weir, who bagged 991 votes (42.3 per cent).

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com