Letter of the Day | Root causes of voter apathy

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The real winner of the local government elections held on Monday, February 26, was voter apathy. It remains the undisputed champion of the Jamaican electoral process and will continue for quite some time. The plight of the disaffected and ‘nuh bizniz’ faction proceed to strengthen in successive elections. And this subset of the citizenry doesn’t seem to be waning in strength or reach.

Long gone are the days when party loyalty and tribalism among the medium- and high-information voting base was a critical factor. Simply put, they are disengaged and uninterested in the process because the candidates are either unscrupulous or ‘tek people fi ediat’. Now, the JLP and the PNP must stop to take a hard look in the mirror, and question if they are really satisfied that 70 per cent of the voting population who abstained from the polls.

We can always blame the failure of the messaging and incorrect methods of outreach as the main culprits. The fact remains that less than a third of eligible voters have chosen a (functional) local government. Or maybe some think tank will contend that the ’70 per cent’ do not comprehend the significance of casting a vote.

I would like to propose a simpler explanation – blame the corruption of those incumbents who have squandered their Constituency Development Funds. This truth goes back to the old trope that some of these representatives and councillors only show up to start minimal work in their constituencies when an election is a mere few weeks away. They do these desperate attempts to sway and play on the emotions of their voting base to give them another chance. Why? Work has started and more is in the pipeline.

That pipeline seems to have no exit point. So, what were these reps and councillors doing for the past few years? The excuses run deep – some have maintained the lie that since their party is not the current administration, they have not received any funds. Those whose party form the government will contend that there isn’t enough roadwork to give everyone a ‘smalls’.

How can these leaders be so presumptuous and denigrating to the people they have placed their hands on a Bible and swore to serve? Do they not realise that predictable actions like these are correlated to the exponential growth of ‘the handout mentality’? Do they even care? Who will hold these charlatans responsible for destroying the belief that participating in a democratic election is a tool worth preserving?

Here is a practical example: There is a popular video in circulation on social media of a woman saying that she will cast her vote for a particular party because they gave her livestock. She also counters with the fact that if the opposing party brought her a greater quantity, she would essentially switch. When the interviewer asked her about loyalty, she quipped by saying if an MP can switch party for their personal benefit and prosperity, then why shouldn’t she do the same.

If the representatives and councillors were meeting the needs and providing opportunities for individuals typical to this woman, she would have no reason to sell her vote to the highest bidder.

EVERYDAY JAMAICAN REALITY

The prime minister will continue to speak praises about how the Jamaican economy is humming on all cylinders, and the leader of the Opposition will bring business plans about future investment – all of which are fruitful at the macro level, but these technicalities do not align with the everyday Jamaican reality and experience.

The people need tangible assistance and genuine engagement, and they need it now! Imagine, they have been saying this for some time with the evidence of a declining voter turnout, and both parties have simply ignored it.

This statistic of 29 per cent turnout does not bode well for the future. It’s less than the percentage that voted in 2016. It will only get worse; the handout mentality is now the rule, and issue-based voting is a dwindling exception. There is no easy fix to this problem; and leaders don’t seem to comprehend that Jamaicans want reliable utilities and sustainable infrastructure.

How many decades must the Jamaican youth and elders shout, ‘We want opportunities inna wi community, light and water, and proper road fi drive pon?’ How can these things remain an unreachable goal for a large section of the population in the 21st century and both parties expect people to cast their votes for them?

We may as well declare Vision 2030 to be dead on arrival!

KEITH CAMPBELL