No stomach for politics - Tribal divide drives away independent thinkers, says former election boss
Published:Sunday | March 10, 2019 | 12:00 AMErica Virtue - Senior Gleaner Writer
Nearly one year after his sudden departure from his job as director of elections in the middle of a court fight for the non-renewal of his seven-year contract, Orette Fisher last week told The Sunday Gleaner he would never enter representational politics.
Fisher, in an exclusive interview a week after his return from Nigeria, where he was part of a Commonwealth team of election observers, said that while he was mindful of the old adage of ‘never say never’, he was prepared to go out on a limb.
“One of the things I know is that I would never go into politics. I don’t think I am cut out for the everyday cut and thrust of politics,” said Fisher, who served the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) for 23 years, 10 of which in the top post.
His current revulsion stems from his bird’s-eye view of politics at its best – and worst.
“From what I have seen and where I have sat, in Jamaica, politicians almost always toe the party line in Parliament. People see things through green or orange lenses, and others who see things without checking the facts before arriving at a decision. But none of that will change the truth of the situation. I know I am independent in my thinking and I would not be able to fit into what currently obtains. I know it’s not for me,” Fisher insisted.
Strategic direction
Green is the colour used predominantly by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party and orange by the Opposition People’s National Party.
Fisher joined the EOJ in 1995 as assistant director of elections with overall responsibility for strategic direction and management of the organisation’s support services. Shortly after, he was asked to act as director of elections for 11 months before being appointed on November 1, 2008.
His tenure ended in November 2015.
Between 2015 and 2017, he received consecutive one-year contracts. He went to court to challenge the legitimacy of the contracts offered by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) and the court ruled that he had a case. However, he resigned before the case was heard.
Fisher said he was grossly disappointed that most people involved in politics were unwilling to find middle ground. He also criticised the practice of victimisation common in both major political parties where state benefits are distributed along partisan lines.
“So the independence that I would try to bring to the process would not endear me to either side. You have to toe party line. And I want to have an independent [view] as to what my conscience tells me. My conscience will tell me the right thing, but, because of party line, I have to fall in line. There is really no independence,” he reiterated.
Fisher said Jamaica’s politics required that representatives make a sacrifice, but conceded that the only vote that was likely to be non-partisan was a conscience vote.
“I know I would earn the wrath of my party. I am not the kind of person that politics wants you to be. And that’s part of the reason why I would not go into politics,” he stated firmly.
He said he was disappointed that despite the many brilliant minds that have engaged the process, change has been slow.
Among the reasons Fisher cited for his sudden resignation in 2018 was growing political influence at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica. He was also at odds with proposals from the political party representatives on the ECJ for electors’ details to be given to the parties. Fisher said he objected vehemently.
But the former director of elections said he was proud of his tenure at the EOJ.
“My aim at the EOJ was really to complete the service and move on. There are reasons I took some of the decisions I did, and I will speak to them. And even now I am not sure the time is right,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.
Fisher counts as unfinished business at the EOJ the full digitisation of the voting process in all 63 constituencies, using a digital identification and verification process, instead of the current Electronic Voter Identification and Ballot Issuing System, which was introduced to stem high levels of voter fraud in some constituencies.