Highlights of previous elections
By Hartley Neita, Contributor

Thousands of people gathered outside the Denham Town Primary School in 1983 in support of Edward Seaga who was nominated unopposed as MP for Kingston Western. Right: Policemen take cover in an inner-city community in Kingston during the 1980 general election. - File Photos

BEFORE 1944, men could vote if they were over the age of 21, paid an annual tax of not less than 10 shillings (10/-) and were in receipt of a salary of 80 pounds per year.

Where women were concerned they had to have the same qualifications as men in relation to tax and salary. In addition, however, they could not vote until they were 25 years of age, and they had to pass a literacy test.

All this changed, however, for the general elections of December 14, 1944.

Everyone, all men and women over the age of 21 could vote. And women no longer had to take a literacy test. My mother, bless her memory, refused to participate in what she felt was an insult.

She was housewife to our household and did not earn a salary. But dammit, she paid her 10 shillings a year to license her ladies' wheel bicycle. She was over 25, and she spent the early dark of evenings helping us with our homework. She was more literate than many men who could vote, and despite urging from male friends of the family to take the literacy test so that she could add a vote for J.A.G. Smith, and later R. O. Terrier, she would not budge.

Miss Abbie, as everyone called her, was not amused.

PEACEFUL

That significant Election Day was relatively peaceful. In Kingston and St. Andrew and most of the island, it was sunny, with scattered showers in some of the hills. Two staff reporters and the chief photographer of The Daily Gleaner, toured the Corporate Area and "found no signs of disorder at the polling stations." Indeed, so perfect were the arrangements that the voting was uneventful.

Some persons even thought it was dull, "with the exception of the Western Kingston constituency where the longshoremen and other manual workers turned out in their thousands to poll their votes and apparently show loyalty to Mr. Bustamante". In all the other constituencies, people attended in twos and threes at the polling stations. Small shopkeepers closed in some areas. So, too, were the bars, whose owners respected the order to close, "a fact which was seen as contributing to the remarkable orderliness and quiet". Nobody was seen drunk and disorderly. For the greater part of the forenoon, stores in commercial Kingston were closed, only a restaurant or two doing business, another factor which lent a holiday aspect to the day. In addition, both in Kingston and in the country, most people wore their Sunday- go-to-Church clothes as if enjoying a holiday and a day of rest.

VERY FEW TELEPHONES

At the time of that General Election, there were very few telephones in Jamaica. In May Pen, the then largest town in Clarendon, there were fewer than 20 telephones in homes. In my village, four miles away, there were no telephones in any home; there was a telephone at the railway station which could only communicate with other railway stations. The post office had no telephone, but was connected to the other post offices in the island by telegraph using Morse Code. Oh yes, the railway station also had telegraph service.

Communications within my village was by walk-foot or by shouting to neighbours on either side of homes. There were also very few radios in Jamaica. In my village there were only two. When the West Indies played England in England or Australia in Australia, and when Joe Louis was fighting other heavyweights to keep his world heavyweight title, all the men went to these two homes to hear the broadcasts.

ONE RADIO STATION

There was one radio station in Jamaica, ZQI, owned and operated by the Government, and at that time it broadcast only five hours each day from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. And you couldn't telephone requests to the station for songs like "Your Are Too Beautiful", or send "greetings to my girl Eliza".

The roads in the hills of some rural areas were called bridle tracks. Only mules, donkeys and horses could travel on them. They were narrow, winding, with stones scattered on the surface and covered with thin coats of marl which was washed away with every little shower of rain.

In the 1944 elections, the People's National Party contested only 19 of the 32 seats, winning four. Later they became five when F.L.B. Evans joined the lonely four. All the top leaders of the party, Norman Manley, Noel Nethersole, Ken Hill, Wills O. Isaacs, lost their seats. The only leader who won was Florizel Glasspole.

On the other hand, the Jamaica Labour Party contested 30 seats and won 23. The Jamaica Democratic Party, whose members were mainly of the business community, or aspirants, did not win a seat and faded into oblivion. Forever.

INTERESTING INCIDENTS

The 1949 elections saw many interesting incidents. Busta-mante, who had won the Western Kingston constituency handsomely against Ken Hill in 1944 with a majority of 6,113, saw defeat staring him in his face. He therefore decided to run in South Clarendon, giving young Hugh Shearer his groundings in national politics. Shearer had won a seat in the KSAC for a western St. Andrew division in the Local Government elections two years earlier, and Bustamante believed Shearer could give Hill a tougher fight than he could. Shearer lost, but one of memorable things of that campaign was that both men were photographed sitting together at the desk of the Returning Officer while their nomination papers were being processed. It was comradely; but then, both young men were trade unionists, and there was and still is a brotherhood among leaders and members of the trade union movement in Jamaica.

Similar camaraderie was also seen when Norman Manley and Edward Fagan of the JLP arrived at the Nomination Centre at the same time, and greeted each other warmly. The same non-confrontation took place in St. Andrew Western when Rose Leon of the JLP and Edith Dalton James of the PNP, not only arrived at the centre at the same time, but stood to be photographed together with their main supporters.

SYMBOLS

Another interesting incident took place in St. James North Western on Nomination Day. At that time, political parties did not have symbols as they now do, and these symbols were allocated to candidates alphabetically. The Star on this occasion was second on the list, so Iris Collins who used the Star symbol in 1944 and won, found that this time A.G.S. Coombs was allocated the Star. This was short lived. The lady would have none of this. She wanted the Star and so just before the polls were closed, a Clifford Brown arrived and was duly nominated. Collins therefore got the Star, although it did not help her this time as she lost.

By 1949, the PNP was better organised and felt it could win the elections. It printed a manifesto, "Plans for Progress". The JLP only published advertisements with a list of its accomplishments during the preceding five years and a promise to provide "a new deal for Agricul-ture", "a New Deal for Industry" and a "New Deal for the People". Frank Pixley, the JLP's candidate in Central Kingston called on his supporters "not to change horses in mid-stream," and to counter this and similar sentiments, the PNP also commissioned a poem by the nationally popular Louise Bennett, titled "Time for a Change".

On the platform campaigning for the PNP was Jamaica's great and beloved tenor, Granville Campbell. And both Dalton James and Wills Isaacs had as their campaign theme, "Sweep Them Out", which like "Time For a Change" became the party's campaign theme in 1955.

Andrew Ross, the JLP candidate for St. Mary Eastern told his supporters that "Christ and Barabbas were the world's first political candidates, and claimed that the supporters of the PNP were like the conspirators against Christ". According to PNP critics, it sounded good on the platform, but wondered what it meant.

And when an American arrived in Jamaica with his plane, ostensibly to entertain the public with "Sky writing" exhibitions, the PNP responded with an advertisement stating that "Writing in the sky does not win elections. It is writing on the ballot paper that does".

Now, because ballot boxes in the hills had to be carried to the Counting Centres by mules or donkeys, it took a long time for the results to be known. And with few telephones, many people could not call anywhere to find out what voting was like. The sole radio station, ZQI did not have the ability to send out roving reporters to telephone activities at the polling stations. So, as a public service, The Daily Gleaner erected a 20-foot tall election scoreboard in the Kingston Race Course, in the area now known as National Heroes' Park.

GRANDSTAND

Also, it mounted amplifiers and loud speakers in the park which relayed the election programme broadcast by ZQI carrying the results which were also displayed on the board. There was even a grandstand which could seat about 400 special guests. The Race Course was packed with a crowd of several thousand persons. Between announcements of the results, gramophone music was played. Whenever a result was announced there were the sending off of rockets. In addition, every half hour there was a display of fireworks, provided with the courtesy of Lascelles deMercado and Co.

The Jamaica Labour Party also won these elections. The next time, in January 1955, the PNP defeated the JLP for the first time. They did so again in 1959, but lost in 1962. The theme of that year's campaign was "Manley is The man with The Plan", and all around the city of Kingston you could find silhouettes of walking shoes soles, with the words, "Follow The man With the Plan". The Jamaica Labour Party countered with the slogan, "The Party with the Programme". The JLP won, and did so again in 1967.

By 1972, the PNP had a new leader in Michael Manley. It was a time when there was an international cry for "Black Power". Manley went to Ethiopia and returned with a walking stick presented to him by Emperor Haile Selassie". It became known as "The Rod of Correction". The JLP was defeated. In 1976, the PNP won again but lost in a tide of a flood of "Deliverance" in 1980.

The JLP lost in 1989 when Manley returned to office with the slogan, "We Put People First". In subsequent elections, the PNP won, beginning with the theme "The Best Choice" under P.J. Patterson. It is now time again, and on Wednesday we wait to see if the invitation to Log On To Progress" will resonate with votes for the PNP, or will the JLP's promise of "Make the Change".