WHILE 40 per cent of the country’s 1.3 million electors stayed away from Monday’s national polls, one polio-stricken elector ignored pain and discomfort to exercise his constitutional right on Monday.

Stricken from a young age with the debilitating disease, the voter, identified only as Mr Wright, braved pain and the 20-metre walk from the gate of the school to the polling centre, to vote at the Cooreville Gardens Basic School in the St Andrew, Western constituency.

Assisted by two younger men, he told the Observer that he contracted the debilitating disease in his early years.

“I started to walk good for sometime even after I contracted the disease. But I have started to get weaker since I started getting older,” he said, as he exited the centre, weakened after each gruelling step.

Pain gripped his face as he exited the compound, stopping almost after each step for breath.

But the light from the spark in his eyes for the accomplishment, was a lesson… even to a journalist.