We are encouraged by the number of candidates nominated for the September 3, 2025 General Election — 189 in total, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) told us after nominations closed on Monday.

While it was expected that the two major political organisations — the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Opposition People’s National Party — would field candidates in all 63 parliamentary seats, we were pleasantly surprised that candidates from other parties, as well as independents have thrown their hats into the ring.

According to the EOJ, those candidates number 47 from the Jamaica Progressive Party; seven from the United Independents’ Congress; and nine independents.

Independent candidates, of course, have been a feature of our politics for decades. In fact, in the 1944 General Election, the island’s first after full universal adult suffrage, the records show that independent candidates won five of the then 32 parliamentary seats. The JLP, led at the time by its founder Sir Alexander Bustamante, won 22 seats, while the PNP, under then party president and co-founder Mr Norman Manley, won five seats.

At the second general election, in 1949, independents and two minor parties — The Agricultural Industrial Party and the United Party of Jamaica — failed to win seats. A similar result emerged in 1955, the third general election, as 11 independents and candidates from four minor parties contested the polls without any luck.

Since then, independents and third parties have been intermittent features of our elections with the National Democratic Movement (NDM), which was founded in October 1995, coming the closest to making any form of impact. However, after it received a mere 265 votes in the 2011 General Election, the NDM started to wane and has not been able to regain the national posture it enjoyed immediately after its founding.

That the upcoming election is being contested by independents and emerging political parties is, as we have said, most encouraging as it signals a wider embrace of our democracy that, we hope, will mushroom into greater citizen involvement.

Political organisation, though, is not cheap. Neither is it for the faint of heart. It takes a constant flow of funds, as well as fixity of purpose and great patience to stay afloat and keep the populace interested.

While the minor political organisations contesting the September 3 election will most likely not shift the needle in terms of national influence, they should not leave the experience feeling defeated. Rather, they should take the lessons learnt and build on them to strengthen themselves for the future. They should recognise that their involvement in the political process contributes to the preservation of our democracy, an ideal that all Jamaicans should protect and nurture.

With that in mind, we urge the emerging political parties, independent candidates and, certainly, the traditional political organisations to engage in a campaign that examines issues, rather than personalities; substance rather than theatre; and, just as important, respect for opposing views.

Dialogue will always eclipse violence, and civility will certainly outshine incivility.

Let us use this campaign to set an example for the next generation.