KINGSTON, Jamaica — People’s National Party supporters from rural parishes should now be on their way to tonight’s mass rally in Half-Way-Tree, St Andrew, while those from the Corporate Area and St Catherine are beginning to gather to get on their buses to the grand rally where party president Portia Simpson Miller is expected to announce the date for the general election, although she still has 11 months left in the term.

Two Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) buses and a Toyota Coaster bus are now outside the constituency office of the incumbent MP Arnaldo Brown in St Catherine East Central, while at the South Eastern St Catherine constituency of Colin Fagan, two JUTC buses are on hand, awaiting the arrival of party supporters.

The election will be the 17th since Universal Adult Suffrage, when Jamaicans won the right to vote.

Support for the two main political parties have, however, over the years dwindled to mainly grassroots support as Jamaicans, generally, have lost interest in the political process. The recently released Don Anderson-RJR poll results is a testimony of this. Just over 27 per cent say they will vote for the ruling PNP and just over 23 per cent for the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

If the results stand and the uncommitted, those who say they will not vote and those who fail to indicate their party of choice, stay away, the election could see the lowest turnout of voters in the country’s history.