Address these campaign safety issues, please

Friday, December 23, 2011

No one who has ever been in the midst of a Jamaican political mass rally with thousands of people jammed together — rocking to the rhythms of popular music and in-between that cheering and hanging on to the words of favoured politicians — will easily forget the experience.

The casual observer might be tempted to think that such events are as much carnival as they are partisan political.

This newspaper has no desire to bring an end to these mass feel-good 'parties' that our two main political parties throw. But we sense that in the interest of public order the police, together with the political organisations, will have to take strong action to bring greater control during election campaigns in the future.

Again, as we have said before in this space over recent weeks and indeed in previous election campaigns, a major issue surrounds the transportation of party supporters and the extreme indiscipline which appears to go hand in hand with such mass movement.

News reports this week that a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporter was injured in a motorcade underline the point. As we understand it, the woman suffered a dislocated shoulder when the affected body part protruding from the window of a bus was hit by a passing vehicle.

Let's give thanks, for it could have been far worse. As we all know there have been deaths in the past from such accidents.

Perhaps there has been some improvement, but from those of us looking on from the outside the stern and repeated warnings by the police for drivers and passengers in these election motorcades to abide by the road code seem to have gone largely unheeded. The political party followers have also apparently ignored the pleas from their leaders.

We would suggest that the police, the political parties, and perhaps also the political ombudsman need to study on this matter and, long before the next election, hammer out a code that will include provisions for the abandonment of motorcades if order cannot be maintained.

Also, we believe serious thought must be given to this practice of moving supporters over long distances. If, for example, the leadership of a political party feels the need for a road tour to meet and greet people in their communities, why is it necessary for them to be followed by hundreds, even thousands of supporters, in scores of vehicles inevitably snarling traffic and endangering other road users?

If there is a mass meeting in Montego Bay, why should it be necessary to bus in hundreds of supporters from as far as 200 miles away in Kingston and elsewhere?

And why should it be that on Nomination Day, when only 10 people are required under the law to be with the candidate at the nomination centre, hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of supporters also converge?

We are told that on Nomination Day in Mandeville, Central Manchester, traffic was brought to a standstill for hours either side of noon as JLP and PNP supporters journeyed to and from the nomination centre.

We are aware that such scenes were replicated all across the country hindering ordinary working people going about their business. The negative effect on production time does not escape us.

This newspaper recognises the felt need by the political parties to "build vibes", but surely it can't be at the expense of the rest of us.

If we are ever to take ourselves and our politics seriously we need to address these issues.

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Address these campaign safety issues, please