REPRESENTATIVES of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP) have bemoaned the impact of money on last week’s local government elections, while accusing their opponents of buying votes.

This has been a regular allegation following recent elections in Jamaica, with most politicians claiming that their hands are clean while pointing fingers at the other side.

But islandwide checks by the Jamaica Observer have revealed several electors who claim that they cast their vote only after they were paid for the valuable ‘X’.

“Mi decide that mi nah vote but on the morning my MP [Member of Parliament] — who mi rate — come beg me fi vote fi the councillor, who mi no rate. Mi tell him seh me nah go out unless mi get a thing and him gi me a thing, that is why mi vote,” said one elector in a rural constituency, who refused to say how much she had been paid.

Another voter in a Corporate Area constituency claimed that everyone in her community who demanded money for their X was given $5,000 by the sitting councillor.

“But mi get even more as mi link the…candidate [on the other side] and tell him seh mi get the five grand [$5,000] from the … to vote and him give me five and seh mi fi link a man after mi vote and him would give me five more if mi vote for him. Mi just mek everybody know seh mi vote fi the second man and a fifteen grand [$15,000] mi collect on election day,” said the man as he showed the Jamaica Observer the green and orange shirts that he donned on election day, February 26.

In another rural constituency a voter argued that he had not seen his sitting councillor for months, and while he would always vote for the party his family has supported over the years, as he could not vote for the other party, he had to make sure that he collected “a thing” before he voted.

“I never wanted anything to vote, but I just think this was the right day to take something off the councillor as mi nuh know when mi a guh see him again,” said the dreadlocked man.

There is also the infamous video of the woman on election day who said she was voting for the JLP because they bought her three bags of chicken for her fish fry, and if “the PNP come right now and buy mi four bags a chicken, a deh so mi thing deh”.

During an extensive interview with the Observer last Thursday, veteran politician and Member of Parliament for Portland Western Daryl Vaz said the issue of people demanding money for their vote has become more pervasive over the past decade.

“I started to notice that trend from the 2011 election and it has gradually gotten worse. And when I say worse, it is that there are people on both sides of the political divide who are not prepared to vote without getting some form of benefit, whether it be cash or kind,” Vaz told the Observer.

He argued that this is a worrying sign, particularly at a time when fewer than 30 per cent of people on the voters’ list turned out to cast their ballot in the just-concluded local government elections.

According to Vaz, those demanding payment for their votes are mostly in the younger generation, who are the future.

“They are getting enumerated, but not for the right reasons. They are either getting enumerated because they need an ID, or because they want to be in a position to extort money or kind for votes. It has increased, without a shadow of a doubt, and I think in this election it was very, very prominent and across Jamaica,” he said.

“It is not something that is limited to a particular geographic area — whether urban or rural — because what I have heard from my colleagues, on both sides of the fence is that it [cash for votes] was at play largely and widely. So what you are seeing, unfortunately, is that elections are becoming more and more transactional,” added Vaz.

He said to assist the four JLP councillors in his Portland Western constituency he had election day costs related to lunch for workers, reimbursement for out-of-town voters, and subsidies for drivers who were taking electors to polling stations to cast their votes, but he would not pay anyone to vote.

“Once you encourage that, you are in trouble. Once you start that, then you have no moral authority,” declared Vaz as he pointed out that when his late father, Douglas, was involved in representational politics, in the mid-1970s until the late 1980s, there was no request for cash or kind to vote, and workers for the two major political parties were not paid but turned out on election days for the love of their parties.

“I guess it is because of the political apathy that exists, because of the type of politics that we have played for years, why people are making the voting transactional,” added Vaz.

Under Section 91 of the Representation of the People Act every person who, directly or indirectly, gives, lends, or agrees to give or lend, or offers, promises, or promises to procure a vote shall be deemed guilty of bribery. The person who accepts the cash to vote is also guilty of an offence.