Flagging the code
Parties mark turf with impunity in absence of political referee
Published:Tuesday | February 13, 2024 | 12:13 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
As the local government election campaign reaches fever pitch, political flags and posters are being mounted in public spaces in sections of the island in clear violation of the political code of conduct.
Across the Corporate Area, buildings and utility poles have been the preferred spots, but along the busy Spanish Town Road, not even a bridge in the vicinity of Riverton was spared.
In at least one instance, tensions surged after the paraphernalia of one candidate was replaced by supporters of another with the candidate of their choice.
A widely circulated video also shows one person using a long stick to remove a green flag placed high up on what appeared to be a utility pole. Green is the colour associated with the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), while the People’s National Party’s main colour is orange.
Section 1 (A) of the Joint Agreement and Declaration of Political Conduct (2005) reads: “No person should engage in, adopt or otherwise encourage, any form of violence or intimidation in their political activities.”
“No damage should wilfully be done to any property, whether private or public, in the course of, or, as a result of, any political event or activity,” reads Section 2, which addresses the safety of private and public property.
Turning to the avoidance of defacing off buildings or installations, Section 6 says, “There should be no defacing of any structure, roadway or installation (whether privately or publicly owned) for the purpose of displaying any political message or slogan except in such manner as is permitted by law.”
In the lead-up to the polls in 2011, then political ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair threatened the political parties with “hefty fines” if they failed to have flags removed from public spaces, declaring that the practice was a breach of the political code of conduct and the law.
He said the flags were mounted “to display dominance” and to “say this is orange territory or green territory”.
Long-serving parliamentarian Karl Samuda, the JLP’s campaign manager then, declared that the party did not condone the mounting of flags as it was against the law.
“My position is very clear that there should be no flags ... . We don’t support the hoisting of any flag, whether it be green or orange,” he said.
The Office of the Political Ombudsman has been vacant since Donna Parchment Brown’s term came to an end on November 15, 2022.
Parchment Brown had also tried to tackle the practice and had sought the assistance of the police and the National Solid Waste Management Authority to remove flags after the parties ignored her calls to remove them from public spaces.
Last Friday, the Senate passed into law the Political Ombudsman (Amendment) Act, which will assign the duties of the political ombudsman to the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ).
Director of Elections Glasspole Brown, who is one of nine ECJ commissioners, told The Gleaner on Monday that he has not received any complaints, but said that as a regular citizen, he has seen the flags on display.
He, otherwise, had no comment to offer on the unlawful practice.
Eugene Kelly, the PNP incumbent in the Whitfield Town division in St Andrew, whose division is among those with several orange flags flying, said it was mere free expression.
“As it relates to Spanish Town Road, of which my division has a very small section, it’s my understanding from my campaign manager that it was residents who made and placed those makeshift flags, and as such, if that is the case, they are expressing their [right to] freedom of speech,” he told The Gleaner.
The police leadership in Portland summoned candidates to a meeting on the weekend after a political billboard in the Fairy Hill division was taken down and burnt, causing anxiety.
The long-delayed elections will be held on February 26.