Dear Editor,

The increase in voter apathy in Jamaica is the biggest threat to our democracy and quality of life. When our people distance themselves from a legitimate political process it opens up the country for all types of miscreants to tiptoe into our legislature and executive.

If you ask me, a person who is intimately involved in the 63 constituencies, I would say, without fear of contradiction, that more than half of the 63 representatives are unfit to legislate on behalf of their constituents.

When a developing country like ours reaches the level at which 63 per cent of the eligible voters do not turn out to cast their ballots, it allows less-than-desirable individuals to step into Parliament and slam the doors of good representation behind them.

My own analysis of this conundrum is that the independent and issues voters have all retreated, leaving only the base of the two major political parties to turn out at the last poll. Of the 724,317 people who bothered to vote, 408,292 voted for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and 306,034 voted for the People’s National Party (PNP).

This apathy has hurt the PNP and democracy because the party has a much larger base than the JLP in 39 of the 63 constituencies yet they were able to only garner 14 of those 39 seats. It seems safe to say, in my opinion, that the JLP has formed the Government by default as the PNP was more affected by voter apathy.

We have noticed a trend in the JLP’s public relations narrative, whereby the party, when accused of any misdemeanour, equates its actions to that of a past PNP administration. In other words, “no better herring, no better barrel”.

This they hope will further suppress the PNP voters into continued apathy, allowing them to continue winning by default.

It is only possible for a Government to win by default if we continue to disenfranchise ourselves by not turning the matters that affect us into ballot box issues.

To save our democracy and improve our quality of life we must vote, regardless of whether we are a part of the bases of the PNP and JLP or independent voters.

We must use our fingers to nullify the threat to our democracy and quality of life.

Fernandez Smith

fgeesmith@yahoo.com