Some elderly vote early in colourful election day

Thirteen years ago, she lost her leg in an accident. She has learned to cope with it, so Thursday, it was no problem for her to go out and support her candidate, Dayton Campbell, two-time member of parliament for St Ann North West.

She gave her name only as Marjorie, and she lives in Discovery Bay, she said.

“I vote from before 8 o’clock,” she told The Gleaner as she sat on a stool beside a roadside shop near the Discovery Bay All-Age School, where she actually voted. Her two crutches were leaned up against the shop, beside her.

Asked about going out to vote despite her disability, she said, “Mi haffi come out come vote, nutten couldn’t stop mi,” and laughed.

She was one of several elderly persons who turned out early to vote on Tuesday in St Ann North West as they wanted to make sure they exercised their franchise without delay.

The others included an elderly gentleman who voted at the Salem Baptist Church at around 8 a.m. He said that the process went smoothly and that he had no issues. After voting, he was led to a waiting motor vehicle by a lady dressed in the green of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), signifying that she was supporting that party’s candidate, Krystal Lee.

Those two marked what turned out to be a colourful election day in St Ann North West as the orange of the People’s National Party (PNP) and the green of the JLP were interspersed with the yellow of the independent candidate, Peter Shand, a former PNP backer who decided to go solo.

Except for the Brown’s Town Infant School location, where Shand’s agents were missing, the three colours blended well and certainly brightened the day after two days of rainfall in the Garden Parish.