By Andrew Clunis
It is over and done. Jamaica’s most highly anticipated elections have come to a close and the JLP won the well clamoured third term, that will go down in the history books for Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
The JLP held off the rampaging challenge from the PNP turning them back 34-29 to set up a very interesting parliament for the next five years.
Despite emerging victorious, the JLP must have cause for concern having lost 15 seats including some that seemed certain to return to its column. Among the big disappointments were losses in Eastern Portland and South East St Mary. Time will tell what the anticipated magisterial recounts in some close-run constituencies will bring and if those will shift the balance in the parliament.
From all reports the elections were peaceful and orderly although the Electoral Office has many questions to answer. Elections come around every five years and there is very little activity in the intervening years. The Electoral Commission and the Electoral Office are adequately funded for what they do and there should be no excuse as to why the voting process became so frustrating for so many people.
There should be no surprise about the low voter turnout because if the process does not become more inviting and enticing to potential voters apathy will remain high. The next national polls will be the local government elections which will fall due in a couple of years. That is enough time to get things in order. Polling stations need to be retrofitted with features to assist the disabled and elderly communities by putting ramps in place and making the locations overall more accessible.
For some time now we have been tinkering with the electronic voting system and we are not getting it right. It is either that we fully embrace the system by building out the system fully or we scrap it altogether. It seems to provide more challenges at polling stations than it is worth.
A lot of credit must go to the overall electoral process nonetheless. We should be proud of the fact that the efficiency that attends is so high that polls close at 5 pm and by 9 pm we can have a clear idea as to which party would have won. Oh how we have matured that we no longer have challenges with election fraud and the skulduggery that used to exist with ballot boxes being stuffed and stolen.
Despite the sometimes contentious nature of the campaign, democracy proved the real winner in the end. This was evidenced in Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s concession speech which was sober in tone and substance. One can only hope that he cans the “Markie G” character as he seeks to lead his side in the parliament as a government in waiting.
On a separate note the question must be asked: Who is now responsible to remove all the political paraphernalia from the public spaces? This should be of concern to the municipal corporations and the political ombudsman. Orange and green fabric litter the streets and someone needs to take responsibility to enure that candidates undertake the responsibility to have these now unsightly materials removed from public spaces.