Election campaign having very little effect on rural businesses
EXCEPT for St Catherine and Clarendon, where violence associated with the election campaign is said to be having an impact on commercial activities, Chambers of Commerce (C of C) in the rural sections of the island are reporting that most businesses have not been affected by the violence.
The president of the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce, Rudolph Green told the Sunday Observer that in the Central St Catherine constituency where incidents of violence have been increasing since Nomination Day, some businesses have been closing early.
“Complaints from a wide cross section of businesses have been made to the Chamber that by 3:00 to 4:00 pm they are ready to pack up and go home, because of the situation,” Green said.
In areas where citizens blocked roads, businesses had a tendency to close early as “the culture of blocked roads means that the police is ineffective,” Green said.
He said that some businesses in Spanish Town were affected by the splitting of the town between two constituencies – Central and South Central St Catherine – as violence in Central St Catherine in some instances go over into South Central.
“If there is a shooting on Young Street, in Central St Catherine it spills over into other streets in the South Central constituency,” Green said.
He said that resulting from the violence the Chamber had received reports of persons seeking “protection money” from businesses.
Although Clarendon has been relatively peaceful, fear of the possibility of crossfire and stone throwing has caused a decline of about 30 per cent in business.
“People are tense and concerned and on the lookout just in case,” Wesley Levy, president of the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, said. Levy said that the fall-off was due to businesses closing early.
“The election campaign activities and the possibility of stone throwing and crossfire is why business is about 30 per cent down,” Levy said.
He said that all types of commercial activity including fast food, bars and vending had been affected and that some businesses have enhanced their security.
In the case of St Ann while there had been a downturn in business over the last six weeks, it could not be directly contributed to election campaigning, Jeanne Dixon, public relations officer for the St Ann C of C said.
“Members say the elections may have been one of the contributory factors and they are concerned about what will happen after,” she said.
Dixon said that tourism was down and that once this was so other businesses also felt the impact. “The rains have also left an image overseas that we have been damaged,” she said.
Montego Bay has been experiencing some fallout in tourism as a result of the election.
“People don’t want to travel to a country in the midst of a campaign, and Jamaica is not known as a peaceful country,” David Lindo, executive director of the Montego Bay C of C told the Sunday Observer.
Lindo, however, said that since the election campaign began the west has been peaceful. “In the west there has been no violence so far, no massing, no marching. We see party supporters with lots of enthusiasm, but nothing has been happening to disrupt the normal flow of people’s lives,” he said.
Manchester C of C president, Donovan Cover said that a few incidents of violence had occurred in the parish as a result of the election campaign, but they had caused no significant fallout in business. “It would be unfair to say so,” he said.
Kennick Davis, president of the Negril C of C said that violent incidents in Kingston did not help tourism.
“There is no doubt that the violence has affected business in Negril. September and October are usually slow months and because of the elections occupancy levels in the hotels are even lower,” he said.
Portland has been peaceful and according to Delaval Allen, president of the Portland C of C, “business people are anxious for the elections to be over”. He said that the party rivalry has been keen.
Both the Trelawny and St Mary chambers said that none of their members had reported any problems.