Whatever may be the final outcome of the February 26, 2024 local government elections, Jamaica stands to lose much if the status quo remains without any significant move towards reformation and transformation of a moribund system prone to much corruption and a lack of accountability.

While it may be argued that the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) carried out its functions within a reasonable time frame with respect to the availability of accurate results, it is fair to say that there was unnecessary bungling and delay, especially in the way media personnel were treated in their efforts to disseminate critical and credible information to the nation on a timely basis. In this regard, it behoves the Press Association of Jamaica to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and request an urgent meeting with the EOJ at the earliest to agree on a standard operating procedure (SOP) that will ensure journalists can effectively carry out their functions on election day.

In the meantime, because of the EOJ’s seeming ineptitude, both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) at different times have claimed overall victory, which has added further fuel to the fire of contentious partisan one-upmanship. It may be that the EOJ, along with the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), in consultation with both the JLP Leader Andrew Holness and the Opposition PNP President Mark Golding should come up with a consensus as to what is a victory in this context. Is it the number of divisions won? Is it the popular vote? Or is it the number of municipal corporations won?

Meanwhile, if this is a precursor to what the Jamaican electorate expects not to happen in the “big one” (general election) come next year, then the EOJ and the ECJ need to get their acts together. And in this vein the role of the political ombudsman must be clearly defined in law, giving it even greater authority and muscle by way of resources to deal with what is likely to be one of the most fiercely contested general elections since 1980 in this country’s history.

Of course, what continues to be a most worrying trend is the low voter turnout. Any percentage below 30 per cent is a disgrace in a country that is being hailed as having a thriving democracy. This scenario speaks to a wanton waste of taxpayers’ money when one thinks of the many millions of dollars expended by the State to conduct such an election. Clearly, the State is not getting value for money spent! The political parties and their candidates would also have invested excessive amounts of money in that one-day event which, for many, would have ended with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Against this backdrop, this writer notes that the PNP candidate for the Salt Spring Division in St James Central Sylvan Reid and the JLP’s West Central St James Member of Parliament Marlene Malahoo Forte have been bemoaning the fact that vote-buying was very much a part of the process on election day.

Readers will recall that in my last article entitled ‘The business of politics’ I elaborated on this “infectious disease” that has been spreading in the nation’s body politic like a deleterious virus, but who cares? Again, the matter of campaign financing, the extent to which State resources are used to persuade voters, and the contamination of illicit funds remain burning issues which neither party has had the cojones to, so far, tackle in a meaningful and sustained way.

As if these were not enough attendant problems to occupy our minds, then came the revelations of two egregious utterances from the PNP’s Trelawny Northern constituency candidate Dennis Meadows and the JLP’s Cabinet member Everald Warmington, the former extolling the virtues of lotto scamming (“chopping”), a criminal activity, and suggesting that it is a justified activity in the context of the slave trade, while the latter declared to Labourites that not one “red cent” of his constituency money would be spent in the division now represented by a PNP councillor.

Needless to say, these unsavoury and irresponsible statements have been condemned by a wide cross section of the society, with civil society groups, in particular, calling for swift, punitive action from Golding and Holness. Up to the time of writing this article PNP President Mark Golding had acted swiftly and decisively in firing Meadows from his North Trelawny candidacy, but it remains to be seen and heard what Prime Minister Holness will do with his belligerent colleague. Let us hope that in the interest of a better Jamaica he will act post-haste to punish Warmington for his indiscretions, once and for all!

Of course, now that the local government elections have come and gone with more of a whimper than a bang, voters should keep up the pressure on the newly elected and re-elected representatives to stand and deliver. In the case of the PNP, its released manifesto has a number of bold and innovative ideas which must be fully explored and debated with the general citizenry in a bid to have as many of their proposals being fleshed out over time and implemented.

The JLP, for its part, has some catching up to do as its manifesto, belatedly so, needs to be fleshed out and put on the front burner, especially as they are the party in power. It cannot be business as usual, the people want reliable water supplies, better community roads, more effective garbage collection as well as greater levels of transparency and accountability in the fiscal affairs of the municipal corporations. In this vein, both Prime Minister Holness as well as Local Government and Community Development Minister Desmond McKenzie must stop the pussyfooting and grandstanding and get the job done in an equitable and people-centred (not party-centred) way.

As it stands, Jamaicans will now have to endure a prolonged period of politicking as the general election looms on the horizon. If this situation is not handled properly by both parties, the country could descend into an unnecessarily extended period of partisan rivalry which has the potential to become dangerously contentious and even violent, which is why the Holness Administration must become more proactive and deal with the issue of the political ombudsman as well as coming up with a political code of conduct, inclusive of attendant consequences, that should be signed off by both major political parties as well as any such groupings out there seeking elected office.

The bottom line is that when the dust will have settled on the matter as to who won or who lost in the recently held local government elections, all attention should be turned to Jamaica, land we love, which stands to be the greatest loser if “things fall apart and the centre cannot hold”.

Selah!

Lloyd B Smith has been involved in Jamaican media for the past 48 years. He has served as a Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. He hails from western Jamaica where he is popularly known as the Governor. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or lbsmith4@gmail.com.