The maturing of the electoral process

Friday, December 30, 2011

YESTERDAY'S polling in our 16th general election since 1944 marked, in our view, the undoubted maturing of the Jamaican electoral and political processes.

Indeed, we have come a far way from the 1960s when there were widespread charges of gerrymandering, and the 1970s and 80s marked by political violence and electoral fraud such as bogus voting, ballot stealing and over-voting.

From one end of the island to the next, the reports were of incident-free voting. The problems encountered were nothing more than the familiar ones of late opening of some polling stations and glitches of voting equipment, particularly in the eight constituencies where the Electronic Voter Identification and Ballot Issuing System (EVIBIS) was rolled out — in Eastern St Catherine, West Central St Andrew, South East St Andrew, Eastern St Andrew, Central Kingston, and Western St Andrew, with partial implementation in North West St Andrew and North Central St Andrew.

The local and international observers, including the Organisation of American States (OAS) mission and the Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE), had little to do, and this augurs well for our international image as a democratic country which changes governments peacefully. We believe that this will factor in the decision of investors when they are choosing where in the world to put their money.

In this regard, we extend heartiest congratulations to Professor Errol Miller and the members of Electoral Commission of Jamaica, as well as Mr Orette Fisher, the director of elections, and his hard-working team at the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ). Theirs was a job well done under difficult circumstances.

Perfection would not have been expected, especially as it is the first time that the EOJ was conducting elections in 63 constituencies, after adding three new ones — two in St Catherine and one in St James.

We are pretty clear in this space that the contribution of the two major political parties — Mr Andrew Holness' Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Mrs Portia Simpson Miller's People's National Party (PNP) was central to the achievement of peaceful elections.

That, in large measure, would also suggest that they have appreciated the yearning among the populace to put the old days behind and embark on a politics of good sense.

If this is sustained going forward, the high level of cynicism engendered by the old politics will, over time, recede and we are likely to see more people taking interest in the voting process. Far too many people stayed home yesterday in what is one of the lowest turnouts in a general election here.

Most importantly, however, the Jamaican people are the ones to be truly congratulated. It is they who have borne the brunt of the agony and were the main victims of the tribal politics that took Jamaica to the brink of being a failed state.

Special congratulations to Mrs Simpson Miller who has received her first mandate from the Jamaican people and who must be feeling that her perseverance after the 2007 loss has paid off. It is her job now to move quickly to unite the country and focus its energies on the arduous task at hand.

For his part, Mr Holness has tasted what defeat is. However, he can console himself that he gave the JLP a chance, if fleeting, and a hope of victory after the party trailed badly in the polls for all of the past year. He has, perhaps, saved the party a far worse beating.

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COMMENTS (8)

zev love
1/10/2012

The political process does not just consist of the voting days. You have to consider to whole gamut from campaigning, to campaign finance etc. In JA we have a rotten system that seems to only allow one of two parties to contest. There were many reports of vote buying, gun shots in W/moreland, campaign posters destroyed in mandeville, hardly a situation of tolerance or honesty. Were the situation truly mature, there would be several small parties also able to win seats

1/7/2012

You have shed a ray of snsuhine into the forum. Thanks!

howie J
12/30/2011

Election Predictions:
Holness said, “What I base my assessment on, is a seat by seat analysis which was scientifically done, both by sampling and by canvassing. And on both polls, we are ahead.” -BBC
Portia said, “When Don Anderson gives a poll finding I have every confidence in that poll…Don Anderson is the don of all pollsters. He is the best since Carl Stone and I hope that what his poll has shown will in fact turn out to be accurate." -Observer
Samuda said, “Anderson’s poll was the only one of the three major pollsters that showed the PNP clearly ahead… I hear Don Anderson talking about 28 safe PNP seats. For a moment I thought he was looking in the wrong column, because that is exactly what I have — 28 safe Jamaica Labour Party seats."-Observer

0o k
12/30/2011

I meant to say new JLP Candidate campaigned on the periphery with little interactions with the heart of their potential electors.

Strange Bedfellows
12/30/2011

0o k is spot on! In fact he has been saying that Andrew should wait. Mark Wignal' article was also spot on when he suggested that the JLP should still have followed their original plan & allow more JDIP work to be completed before calling it. Had Golding remained that would have been his best bet- calling Elections post Independence celebrations and after the benefits of JDIP were really felt at the local level. Oh well. Happy New Years JA. Congrats Mama P, please suprise me.

0o k
12/30/2011

Mr. Golding played the right card.
Mr. Holness played the wrong stroke.
Elections should have been in 2012.
periphery, with little interactions with the heart of their potential electors. Many were challenging Comrades whose Party organization had already put in 3-4 years work in the Constituiency.
All Politics is local. Drive-By, Rent-A-Crowd, Religious, Campaiging cannot work, when there are real issues to ponder.

Stephen Fox
12/30/2011

I am very proud of way the election was orchestrated. The leader of the JLP was gracious in defeat and the leader of the PNP was gracious in victory. We need to do away with the party colours especially on election day. Today is a good day for democracy in Jamaica.

carlos king
12/30/2011

Dear Mr. Editor, Sir. I continue to be pleasantly surprise by your maturing as an Editor. It is not only the Jamaican electorate that has matured, the Jamaica Observer editorial board has also matured in the last two or three weeks. The Jamaican electorate has firmly turned its back on poverty producing garrison politics. But our political leaders are yet to come to this realization. If and when they do so, the country will continue to mature and experience exponentially economic growth.

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The maturing of the electoral process