The first general election in Jamaica under adult suffrage was held on December 12, 1944. It was one of several to be held in the last month of the year. But any similarity to the coming general election stops right there.

This was the year when the vast majority of Jamaicans were about to dip their fingers into voters’ ink for the first time. Prior to 1944, elections in Jamaica used to be unexciting, although the campaigns stirred interest and fun for a few weeks. The trouble was that very few people were allowed to vote. You had to be a property owner and earn 10 shillings a week, and those privileges were denied to many.

All that changed with the new constitution, which came into being in 1944 and which granted universal suffrage to Jamaica for the first time, giving every single Jamaican over 21 years of age the right to vote.

Voting was now regarded as a special privilege, and new voters on that first election day went to the extremes to find their polling booths and cast their vote.

Famous educator J J Mills recalled that early on the morning of polling he saw two old women walking around the Mico College polling centre. Later on he saw them inspecting the Practising School stations. And still later, about 2:00 pm, they again made an investigative circuit of the college. He asked them what was their trouble, and the old lady complained that from 7:00 am she and her friend had been searching for their names, but no one had come forward to help them.

The lady said that if they walked until midnight they were going to vote. According to Mills, this was a practical demonstration of the people’s determination of that time to ‘walk till midnight’ until they found their vote. Today’s stand-off from voting by the so-called articulate minority pales in significance and shame to the pride and joy felt by the humble and unlearned who overwhelmed the polling stations on that memorable first day.

Another differentiation between that period and now is that voters were being led by two great Jamaicans who were already heroes in their right, and who had formed two distinctly different political parties — the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Of interest is that the PNP, which had been launched by Norman Manley in 1938, had contemplated for a while using the name the Jamaica Labour Party, or the Jamaican National Party. Norman Manley made it clear in his speech at the launch, however, and in spite of some internal opposition, that he preferred to call it a ‘people’s party’; because he said: “It will serve the masses of the country.” He also had reservations, at first, on the inclusion of the word ‘national’, suggesting that there could be a danger in using the word “because it is being used in some of the European powers today who threaten democracy but are ultranationalist in outlook”. (This was in 1938 before the outbreak of World War II.) “But, nevertheless, if this country is to be consolidated together it must be by developing the idea of Jamaica as a national whole. And the party is pledged to that national spirit.”

But a twist of history occurred, as when it came to naming the other party, in 1943, Alexander Bustamante told his colleagues that he wanted two words in the name, Jamaica and labour. Someone then said, “Let us call it Jamaica Labour Party”, and so it was that the same name that the PNP had rejected became the banner of the JLP. Under that name, some of the country’s humblest citizens would rise to prominence as representatives of their community and country.

The people were offered distinct choices in the 1944 election. The JLP candidates represented a wide spectrum of society. They were drawn from the schoolroom, the farms, the trade union, from business and the legal profession. They also had a woman, the first one to be elected to the House of Representatives, Iris Collins.

According to Lady Bustamante, “When we nominated Isaac Barrant for Eastern St Thomas, we were laughed at because he was from humble birth, had little education, had been a labourer, and a truck sideman. Some people thought that it was an impertinence for him to aspire to membership in the new House. Nevertheless, he served well and justified Bustamante’s faith in the potential of people from the masses, and became one of the best ministers of agriculture.”

The PNP had a more organised political base led by intellectual stalwarts Norman Manley, Florizel Glasspole, Wills Isaacs, Noel Nethersole, and other well-known public figures. The third party was the Jamaica Democratic Party, representing the views of the employer class, penkeepers, landowners, and merchants. In the end it turned out to be a one-horse race with an overwhelming victory for Bustamante.

There was another feature of the 1944 election that bears mention, and that is the origin of the use of ballot symbols in our electoral system.

When the elections were to be held, it was acknowledged that, because of the high rate of illiteracy, the majority of voters would not be able to read the names of the candidates. It was therefore decided that individual candidates, and not parties, would be allocated a symbol that would allow the candidates to be easily identified.

The candidate whose name started with the earliest letter in the alphabet was assigned the first symbol, the next candidate in alphabetical line the second symbol, and so on, all in the alphabetical order of the candidates’ names. Would you believe it, some candidates promptly changed their names by deed poll in order to be assigned the popular ‘star’, which was the first symbol on the list. This would also put the name at the top of the ballot card. There simply was no beating a candidate whose name started with double A followed by double B, for example. Indeed, as the process wore on, there was active jockeying to secure a symbol not only for its alphabetical advantage, but in cases where the symbol was thought to be the lucky one with some sort of spiritual power attached. Hence a few nocturnal visits to the local ‘mother’.

The parties eventually ended the squabbling by agreeing that all candidates representing one party should share the same symbol — the head for the PNP and the hand for the JLP. The JLP eventually ended up using the bell.

So there you have it for comparison, two general elections, the first in 1944, and today’s — call it when you will.

Jamaica has had a turbulent election history. But I believe there is still time to claim back the achievements of our political forefathers who laid the foundations for a decent political life. Although they were bitter rivals, Norman Manley and Alexander Bustamante held no rancour for each other. Ten years after his defeat in 1944, Manley was to turn the tables on his cousin and replace him as chief minister. “Busta”, the loser, telegraphed Manley: “You have won a close race and now have the opportunity you have longed for. I have always taken defeat without bitterness and triumph without boasting. We shall be an honest Opposition. Good luck.”

In 1968, 24 years after they first faced each other across the political battlefield, Manley was to pay tribute to his retired opponent:

“Many countries have had the misfortune to throw up unworthy leaders. Jamaica was fortunate in throwing up among its leaders one man, Sir Alexander, who gave confidence to the masses of this country, who won their affection and love to the most extraordinary degree, and their loyalty, and who proved afterwards by the whole course of his life that he had accepted the responsibilities of his time, and grown in stature with them as the year passed.

“And then there came the time, Mr Speaker, when Sir Alexander made what history may come to record as his greatest contribution to democracy in Jamaica, and that was the formation and creation of the Jamaica Labour Party, which led to the establishment of the two-party system in Jamaica.”

An extraordinary generosity of spirit displayed by two fierce opponents who led us in the building of our proud nation, Jamaica.

Lance Neita is a public and community relations consultant and writer. Send comments to the Observer or to lanceneita@hotmail.com.