Colin Campbell | Clear messages should lead to clear actions

There are at least two things which are crystal clear from the results of the February 26 local government elections. First, it was close, and second, the active abstentions are now at a level which must be concerning to the Jamaican democracy project.

Most of the public and media focus has been on the question of who the winner was. It misses the point. Most of the participants held firm to their position without realising that the concept of parish council elections was abolished in 2016 with the enactment by Parliament of the Local Governance Act 2016, along with two other strategic laws which have become the new framework for local government administration in Jamaica.

There are no longer parish councils, but local municipal authorities, of which there are three types: municipal corporations (MCs), city municipalities and town municipalities. There are only two types active in Jamaica today: the MCs, which exist in all parishes with one known as the KSAMC serving Kingston and St. Andrew, and Portmore city municipality, with a directly elected mayor, is the sole variation and it functions as a city municipality within the parish of St Catherine.

The Electoral Office of Jamaica’s reporting of the results on Friday (March 1), without accounting for the Portmore city municipality, was therefore wrong in law and may have contributed to mass confusion which was at large in the post-election days. The swift correction by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) was, therefore, helpful.

The correct reporting of the results, in my opinion, is seven MCs to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), six to the People’s National Party (PNP), and Portmore Municipality to the PNP. The KSAMC is awarded to the PNP even though the seats are even, by virtue of the popular vote in Kingston and St Andrew. That’s the treatment by law, not by any party determination. It is worth noting that, in 2016, the JLP won 21 seats to take the KSAMC. The fact that the PNP had the popular vote then was of no value. But this time it is the decider.

GENERALLY SETTLED

This argument is now generally settled, but what will not go away is the 29.6 per cent voter turnout. It is fair to say that Jamaica had been in election mode since September 2023, the annual conference of the PNP. It continued through the JLP’s annual conference in November 2023 and candidates’ presentations by both sides. The JLP held only two in Old Harbour, St Catherine and Chapelton in Clarendon, while the PNP did in all parishes. It culminated on February 1 with the election announcement at the Montego Bay Conference Centre.

Yet, after four months of intense campaign field activity, millions of dollars in the ‘air war’ involving traditional media, digital media and social media (JLP spend was higher and the PNP more strategic), the result is 29.6 per cent. The question is therefore why, and not who won?

There are different schools of thought, with the main one being the electorate, especially the young, has become more transactional and wants this for that, bribes. Many senior politicians have gone on record asserting that they faced it on election day.

Galatians 6:7 came immediately to mind, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”.

POLITICIANS GUILTY

The politicians are guilty. When it suited them in the past, they provided incentives, inducements, payments and sundry forms of assistance to mobilise votes, while telling themselves they were not vote buying. There was massive evidence in the by-elections in South East St Mary and East Portland where the use of state resources was rampant and vulgar. All sorts of numbers were banded about, all sorts of numbers were denied.

One thing is clear. Vote buying is directly proportional to one’s ability to finance it. It has now become a monster threatening to overwhelm the system. Give Caesar his due, not everybody countenanced it, and there were voices such as Paul Burke who lashed out from day one. In this one, those who come to the bar of public opinion must do so with clean hands.

It would suit both sides to fashion a joint approach to stamp it out because, if it grows any more, we can kiss our democracy goodbye. Money will overwhelm the system and, in that, he who pays the piper calls the tune. It should not be allowed to happen in Jamaica, land we love. Clear messages should lead to clear actions.

Voter turnout of 29.6 per cent following 37 per cent in the last general election and 30 per cent in the 2016 local government election are not good and must be disturbing the rest of our forefathers and ancestors who fought and died for the right to vote and develop our Jamaican nation. It is up to the current leaders to devise new strategies of inclusiveness and people participation which put people at the centre. It fundamentally must include a big step up in the quality of representation at the local and national levels.

It was not a good start for the Minister of Local Government, Desmond McKenzie, to conclude that, by their votes, the people showed the JLP was still the preferred choice to lead local government. The 2024 vote was no such thing.

Colin Campbell is a former minister of state in the ministry of local government and a former general secretary of the PNP. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.