NEW YORK, USA — A former Jamaican ambassador to the United Nations has lashed the Government for either being “in denial” or engaging in “deliberate obfuscation” of the numbers of voters in the recent Jamaican Diaspora elections.

Ambassador Curtis Ward said 100, and not 3,000, Jamaicans participated in the elections, as the ministry claimed in a press statement, describing the extremely low number as a “diss” to the Government’s Diaspora Council, and rubbishing its claims that the polls were “keenly contested”.

Commenting on the release on his blog The Ward Post, Ward said that with a Jamaican population in the United States north-east covering Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Maryland and an estimated two million Jamaicans, less than 100 had voted in the elections.

“Despite this, the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, in denial or deliberate obfuscation, issued a press release declaring the elections keenly contested and applauded the fact that over 3,000 voters participated in the process,” Ward complained.

“The ministry’s press release grossly misrepresented the reality and can only be perceived as being intended for consumption solely by the Jamaican public [at home] to give the impression that the Government’s Diaspora policy is successful and that there is broad support for it in the Diaspora,” the former envoy charged.

The controversy is likely to revive concerns about the dwindling participation in Diaspora elections year after year, as second-generation Jamaicans appear to be shunning the polls which started in October.

It was not immediately clear if the ministry’s 3,000 figure represented the overall voting in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom where the bulk of the Jamaican Diaspora resides. But Ward was not alone in his concerns over the less-than-favourable participation in the elections.

Newly elected representative for the Northeast US, Michelle Tulloch-Neil said that during her campaign there were many conversations concerning Diaspora issues and relationships, including “a lack of communication which became very apparent during the voting process”.

Peter Gracey, also newly elected to represent the Diaspora Council in the Southern US covering Florida, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina and Arkansas, declared that, “People in the Diaspora have lost trust about many things in Jamaica.”

Gracey plans to utilise “every communication channel and available resources” to ensure greater participation by members in his jurisdiction on matters of concern, promising that: “A process of education and engagement with organisations and individuals will form part of my initiative.”

And with the elections to the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council now behind them, the newly elected representatives are currently finalising plans and strategies on how best to approach the various issues which are of interest to them.

Gracey, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer, said that he would be focusing attention on “sensitising and bringing awareness to people in the Diaspora to take advantage of opportunities in areas such as trade and business in Jamaica”.

Tulloch-Neil said she had noted difficulties in disseminating information between the Government and the Diaspora, and she would be focusing attention there. She will also be pursuing the long-standing issue of the appointment of an independent senator “whose sole purpose would be to attend to Diaspora affairs”.

She also plans to propose greater collaboration between the Government and the Diaspora to address crime and health issues, adding that she would like to “join forces with the best minds in law enforcement and health care, where I have worked over the past decade, to see how we can propose solutions to similar problems in those areas in Jamaica”.

Among the new representatives coming out of the recently concluded elections are Rhona Dunwell and Lisa Rutty for Canada where two youth council representatives will be appointed through a separate process, according to the ministry’s news release.

In the United Kingdom, Dr Kevin Brown and Nathaniel Peat will continue to represent the North and South UK, while the youth council representatives are Thara Johnson-Reid in the South and Shermara Fletcher representing the North.

Other representatives in the US are Shauna Chin in the West-Midwest, who will continue to serve on the Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, along with Vanessa Richards as the youth council representative for that region. Asha Richards will serve in a similar capacity in the East US.