POLITICS-JAMAICA: Mixed Messages Hurt Opposition Party

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Virginia Hardy

KINGSTON, Sep 3 1998 (IPS) - For months the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party has been sending mixed messages to the Jamaican electorate as to whether or not it would contest upcoming Local Government Elections.

And now having finally decided that it will contest the Sep 10 polls, and having given the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) a huge head start on the campaign trail, some political observers are wondering if the JLP stands a ghost of a chance in next week’s polls despite the severe economic conditions which exist under the PNP leadership at the national level.

“Given the difficult economic situation the country is facing and the high cost of living and the closure of many institutions, one would expect that there would be a period of growth for the Opposition. But one would have to be very brave to say that the disaffection which the population is currently feeling would go in the JLP’s favour,” Brian Meeks, lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies, told IPS.

A wave of internal bickering has had the JLP on the ropes at at a time when the Party should be gaining strength, political observers say.

While the PNP has spent several months preparing for the municipal polls, the JLP was embroiled in a battle over whether the Party should contest the polls. So while the PNP has put forward a full slate of 227 candidates to contest the elections, the JLP has come up short with 222.

In addition, the Party has embarked on the campaign trail without the blessing of its leader, Edward Seaga.

Seaga, who has been advocating the need for electoral reform went on leave when the JLP’s Central Executive voted to contest the elections despite his denouncements.

“I would have no credibility in carrying on a campaign for the reform of the corrupt electoral process if I allowed myself to be positioned as the leader of a team which knowingly participates in, and therefore endorses the corruption,” Seaga said in a letter to the JLP’s general secretary, Edmund Bartlett.

A period of confusion followed Seaga’s announcement and when it appeared that the JLP’s Standing Committee would reverse the Central Executive’s decision, the Party’s campaign chairman, Pearnel Charles said publicly that the vote should stand.

Charles was immediately fired by the Standing Committee for “breaching the Party’s disciplinary codes” . The action, coming as it did when the Party was in the midst of a dispute, raised serious questions about the unity of the organisation.

And while the JLP officials bickered among themselves, the government pressed ahead with plans to hold the polls, which having been postponed six times in five years, was overdue.

In those years many divisions have been left without respresentation, as in some instances Councillors have fallen ill, migrated or died.

“The people of this country have not been able to exercise their right to elect their local representatives since March 1990, ” Prime Minister, Percival Patterson said when he explained why he was insisting on holding elections.

Patterson even met with Seaga to discuss electoral reform. The meeting ended with both leaders agreeing to work together to implement the reforms in a timely manner.

Despite that agreement, Seaga stuck to his decision not to lead the Party into any election until the reforms became a reality.

Seaga’s stance has drawn sharp criticism at a time when his Party can ill afford it.

“Newspaper columnist Geof Brown says if Seaga seriously disapproved of the electoral system he should have resigned when his Party decided to contest the election.

“It is left to appear that the leader wants to have his cake and eat it too. For although he will not lead his troops into a “corrupt” electoral campagin he will stay in place and remain the “clean” leader of a Party indulging in “dirty election” Brown wrote.

“The messy footsteps of the Party’s strategic retreat leaves the leader once more in the position of a general who remains in command but refuses to join troops in fighting what he considers a dirty war… If they win it will prove they don’t need the general; if they lose, they will blame hm for not coming to their aid,” he added.

“The Party appears divided. There is no coherent sense of unity among the leadership. That type of internal bickering is bound to create unease in the minds of even staunch JLP supporters,” says Meeks.

Former JLP member, Shalman Scott says the Party has “no chance” in the election because “no self-respecting Jamaican” could vote for the JLP when it is in such disarray.

“It is going to be a total wipe out for the Labour Party,” predicts Scott.

He says the recent in-fighting in the JLP has left candidates and the electorate in a state of confusion.

Deputy leader of the Party, Mike Henry who will be at the helm for the election campaign has admitted that in some cases the Party has had to field “second string” candidates.

Then too, apart from all that bickering within the Party, the JLP is fighting the perception that the Party is anti-Local Government. In the middle of the 1980s when the Labour Party was in power many functions and responsibilities were removed from the Parish Councils and power was concentrated in the hands of Central Government.

As Prime Minister Patterson puts it, “The Local Government system was in a comatose state. It has been battered, bruised and almost totally dismantled.”

But veteran JLP Councillor, Merline Dailey has dismissed the notion that the JLP is anti-Local Government.

“We are very much supportive of having good representatives who can speak for people, that’s what Local Government is all about. It’s about helping to maintain communities,” she says.

So as the JLP goes into next week’s poll many hold out little hope for its success.

“I see the PNP winning fairly decisively but the voter turn-out will be very low. They will have the victory but they won’t have a moral mandate,” says Meeks.