THE BELLS are ringing, fists are rising, colours are flying and party songs are in the air.
In other words, election fever. However, for more than 300,000 eligible voters who say they will boycott the general elections, it's much ado about nothing.

No matter what happens on October 16, nobody from Julia Brown'sfamily will be lining up at the polling station in her garrison constituency to vote.

You can tell her about the historical significance of the vote if you want, wax poetic about how her forefathers fought long and hard for the right, or about the importance of participating in the affairs of her country. Talk 'till you're blue in the face, nobody in Brown's house is voting.

"It don't make any sense," she says unemotionally. "I choose not to vote because there is no choice and nobody in my family voting either. Them two people (Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga) not doing anything. We need a new vote, younger people, they doing the country no good.

"Somebody needs to tell them that they are not doing a good job," continues Brown. It won't be her though. She's not about to shout her message from the mountain tops or write letters to the editor, instead, she's withholding her vote and hoping that somebody will read between the silent lines.

"If everybody choose not to vote that will send them a message." Furthermore, says the middle-aged woman, "I am from a garrison community, even if you wanted to vote and was thinking about the other side, you better plan to move out or prepare to die."

David Reid is a painter from Kingston. He is 63 years old and has been unemployed for the last 28 years. That's one reason he has never voted and won't be voting this election day.

He's got two other reasons for not entertaining the thought: He has never seen any of his family members going to the polls and his experience with politicians.

No matter what anyone says, how nice they look on TV, Reid says if he can't see how politicians can help him, no one will be getting his vote. "A couple years ago somebody come in mi yard and ask mi how mi doing. Mi tell him that me want some chicken fe put a pot on the fire and him leave and never come back."

"Right now is gunman and criminal politician help, decent people them nuh too like," says Reid. "Them give out the things to notorious gunmen who then sell what them fi sell and give way what them fi give way. The only person I would vote for is Marcus Garvey if him come here right now. Him is the only true hero me know."

Young people are no less cynical about the process, just ask 22-year-old Kerry-Ann Stanley from Above Rocks, St. Andrew. "Hell no!" she replies to
the question of whether she plans to vote. "None of them (politicians) deserve my vote. Anytime they start doing something for me they might have it, but not now."

She has witnessed the opportunist tactics of politicians who don't have a clue as to how to inspire the people and work for their benefit, she explains.

"Since K.D. Knight won the last election, I saw him for the second time in Above Rocks a few months ago... All they want to do is to collect your votes and then forget about you," says Stanley.

Talk to other young people and their talk of a "worthless vote" will slap you hard on the ears. Even those who will become eligible to vote in the next general elections are already turning their backs on the politics.

"Right now them (politicians) not working to them best," says 16-year-old student Devon Barrett. "In my opinion I don't really care what them (politicians) do but some of the things like jobs and homes, they need to work on that. One thing I know is that I wouldn't trust them with my money."

REFUSING TO VOTE HAS BECOME A MARK OF PROTEST HERE AND ELSEWHERE

Recent polls estimate a voter turn out in the upcoming election of 76 per cent, which means an estimated one out of four persons who has been enumerated or registered to vote will not be marking an X this time around.

While a marked percentage of Jamaicans have never voted, since the first truly national election on December 12, 1944, the avoidance of the polls by many of today's eligible voters seem to be a mark of protest, says Dickie Crawford, lecturer in Politics and Public Administration at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

It's a mark of protest against what many of them see as a political system gone bad. The situation is not peculiar to Jamaica, says Mr. Crawford, who has been lecturing at UWI for 18 years. "Across the globe people are choosing not to vote as a form of protest. The popular turnout is falling," adds Crawford.

With the exception of the 10th General Parliamentary Elections in 1983 when just under 29 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote there has been a steady decline in voter turnout since 1980 which saw the highest voter turnout in Jamaica. More than 86 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote that year. (In 1983 the election was boycotted by the PNP).

"In the case of Jamaica, voters feel that neither of the two parties or their leaders is inspiring enough to make them vote. They have become disenchanted," says Crawford.

"Normally, I think that people should vote because it is an opportunity to say what you feel should take place in your society. The right to vote is very important. However...in Jamaica people feel that if they are going to vote it will be lost."

The disappointment in the political system extends beyond the 24 per cent of non-committed voter and to some of those who have decided to run for office. "I've become more disillusioned (since entering the political arena)," says Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas, President of the newly formed United People's Party (UPP). "I didn't know that people bought votes," explained Haughton-Cardenas at the Gleaner's Editors Forum on Tuesday. "If I knew this is how ugly it was, one year ago, I would have thought twice (about entering politics).

"Our politics is a hostage to special interests in Jamaica and that is not democracy," she added.

In defence of the local political system however, Basil Waite, President of the PNPYO (the PNP youth arm) says that despite what people think of politics and politicians in Jamaica, "...no (political) system is perfect. You have good men and bad men. Good politicians and bad politicians.

"I believe politics is a noble
profession and it has made a tremendous impact on the development of societies... You try to run a country without politicians for half of a day and it will be chaos."

VOTING WITH A TWIST

Some voters like Angela Morganwho lives in Clarendon will be voting, but not for the usual reasons. "If you don't vote somebody will vote for you. So it is better to take the vote and spoil it, or something."

Names changed on request