Strong signal from local government election voters is good

WE have never known Mr Daryl Vaz, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Portland Western and senior government minister, to be timid in expressing his views.

Therefore, we are not surprised by his candid analysis of the results of last Monday’s local government elections which saw his governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) taking seven municipalities to the five won by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

As is reported in our lead story today, the PNP won the popular vote and flipped at least 17 divisions which were won by the JLP in the 2016 local government elections. The PNP also won the Portmore mayoral race and, while the much-prized Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation ended in a 20-20 tie, the popular vote advantage gives the PNP the right to name the mayor, who chairs the corporation.

There is no doubt, therefore, that the PNP outperformed the JLP in last Monday’s contest, having gone into the election defending 98 electoral divisions and ending with 115, while the JLP, which had held 130 divisions before the election, completed the race with 113 divisions.

The closeness of the contest, we believe, is good for our democracy, as it keeps the political parties grounded in the knowledge that their fate is determined by the people they are elected to serve.

That reality is obviously not lost on Mr Vaz, who admitted that the precious few Jamaicans who bothered to vote basically sent a very strong message to the Government.

That message, he said, is that the Administration needs to make sure that the majority of Jamaicans actually benefit from its policies and programmes, regardless of how good those policies and programmes are said to be by observers at home and abroad.

Mr Vaz also observed that political parties, when they are in Government, concentrate most of their energies on national issues without giving enough attention to local communities, the source of their base.

Said Mr Vaz: “The fact of the matter is that you have to win at the political level to be [the] Government, and, therefore, concentrating on good governance and not paying attention to the base of your party will result in situations like what we face.”

The comment may rub some people the wrong way. However, political parties are basically ineffective organisations without their base, and, as such, political work in communities and indeed at all levels is vital to their existence.

So Mr Vaz has told us that the election result will see the JLP engaged in introspection about what needs to be done and what changes will have to be made in terms of policy or personnel, bearing in mind the general election which is constitutionally due by next year.

He also said that time is on the side of the JLP to make any changes it needs before the general election. The same is true for the PNP, which is coming out of the local government elections with a bounce.

The country is in for an interesting and politically active time, starting now. Our hope is that our political leaders and their supporters will engage in the kind of cerebral contest that lifts the country.

Except for the views expressed in the column above, the articles published on this page do not necessarily represent the views of the Jamaica Observer.