Rival supporters display unity in St Thomas
ST THOMAS, Jamaica — The people of St Thomas, despite the election results, can take heart that they conducted themselves admirably in the way they went about the business of exercising their franchise to elect a new Government of Jamaica.
In the two constituencies – eastern and western – the security forces barely broke a sweat as residents made their jobs easy by mainly obeying the election rules and following protocol almost to perfection.
Police Superintendent Beau Rigabie sounded a relieved man when he spoke to the
Jamaica Observer at the close of voting yesterday evening.
“The day went well and we are happy that we did not have anything major to deal with. The residents did well and my men did well and we hope to end the day on a high,” he said.
“We are now in the counting phase, so our work is not done, but we can only hope that things continue the same way they have all day,” said the police commander for the parish.
On our move through the parish, the
Observer news team noticed the orderly conduct of voters in many of the 257 polling divisions (PDs) that make up the parish’s electoral spread.
Most of them, from opposing sides of the political divide, could be seen mingling and engaging in friendly banter, even in those voting divisions that have a tradition of rivalry.
In St Thomas Eastern where the incumbent, the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Dr Fenton Ferguson, engaged the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Delano Seiveright there was a prevailing spirit of camaraderie, even in the perceived hot spots of Lyssons, Dalvey, Airy Castle, and Port Morant.
Another positive coming out of the parish was that most polling stations opened for business on time – 7:00 am – although at times the voting process itself took a little longer than some constituents would have liked.
At the Airy Castle Primary School for example, voters could be seen in a long queue waiting to enter to mark their ballots, but they did not flinch, determined to make their votes count.
At Power of Faith Basic School in Prospect in the Port Antonio Division, voters were left in the scorching sun as they waited to enter the station which housed five PDs.
One of those voters, an apparent supporter of the JLP, remarked that she would “melt in the sun” if that is what it would take to “make the change”.
In a quick response, a PNP voter said: “We are not changing the progress.” That exchange, though poignant in a serious sense, summed up the overall spirit of the day.
In St Thomas Western, the spirit was the same as rivals threw friendly pokes at each other.
Long before voting closed, the incumbent James Robertson of the JLP expressed confidence that he would beat his challenger, the PNP’s Marsha Francis. And he, too, mirrored the mood as he joked with other voters while he waited to make his mark.