MAROONS from Accompong and Trelawny Town are hoping that the community can put aside their differences today as they celebrate 277 years of freedom.

The Accompong Maroons elect a new colonel every five years, but current leader, Colonel Ferron Williams, was elected in August 2009 and therefore an election should have been held last August.

The delay has raised tensions in the community, but most Maroons are hoping that the issue, and several others that have affected the community’s relationship with successive governments over the years, will not dampen spirits at today’s celebrations.

Colonel Williams had confirmed earlier that the election for leadership of the community (colonel) would be delayed until after today’s celebrations.

In late August, Williams told the Jamaica Observer that the election would have been held before January 6. However, more recently he has explained that the delay had been necessitated by various problems, including a lack of money and the need to properly update the voters’ list.

But, problems with funding the election is not new to Accompong. The previous colonel, Sydney Peddie, had to seek a meeting in 2009 with the Maroon Secretariat that includes representatives of other Maroon communities to discuss “the way forward”, after his Administration was unable to secure the $2 million required to stage the last elections.

This after they unsuccessfully lobbied corporate Jamaica for funding for more than two months after the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) said it would no longer be able to fund the polls because of budgetary constraints.

The ECJ had suggested that the Maroon council consider continuous registration to replace the system of full enumeration before each election, as well as a possible reduction in the number of polling locations, in an effort to reduce costs.

The ECJ/EOJ had been running the Maroon elections for nearly 60 years at no cost to them.

The Maroons are the descendants of Africans who fought British colonisers from mountain hideouts for decades following the eviction by the British of Spanish colonisers in the 1650s. On January 6 each year, the Accompong Maroons celebrate the anniversary of the signing of a 1730s peace treaty with the British.

Deputy Colonel Norma Rowe-Edwards has issued invitations to both Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna and Opposition spokesperson on culture, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, as the community has done each year, to attend today’s ceremonies and address the Maroons.

“Ours was a struggle of resistance and a battle for 83 years. Our ancestors defeated a world superpower, Britain, and we are the beneficiaries of a treaty that is alive and well to this day,” Rowe-Edwards said in the invitation to the political leaders.

The Accompong Maroons recognise the role that education, economic and cultural development play in building and sustaining a nation. We plan for something special this year,” she said in her invitation to the leaders.

The traditional ceremony starts at 10:00 am and the civic function at 2:00 pm.