A new day has dawned in the politics of Jamaica, for the first time in its history the fight for scarce benefits and spoils will be in the trench of the garrisons. Not since 1976 have we come this close to a toss- up by leaders from garrison constituencies, then Michael Manley poled 77.8% of the votes cast in Kingston East Central to Edward Seaga’s 77.7% in Kingston Western.

Head of the stream

At the next general election the prime minister will come from one garrison or the other: St. Andrew South West or Western Kingston, Portia Simpson Miller or Bruce Golding.

Both leaders have played no small role in the establishment of garrison communities and there is no reason to expect that they will behave any differently on attaining high office. The pretence is gone, overtaken by reality and if history is any guide garrison politics will likely be spawned throughout the country.

Evolution of garrisons

The first general election since Adult Suffrage in 1944 saw Alexander Bustamante with 71.7% of the Accepted Ballots (A/B) in the constituency of Western Kingston and in 1949 he garnered 74.5% of A/B in Clarendon Southern. This was not the creation of garrisons as we now know it but there were certain similarities like the popularity of the candidate, dependency and illiteracy on the part of the voters, etc. In 1944 the highest percentage of the A/B won was by I. W. A. Barrant of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in St. Thomas Eastern (84.6%). Even Clarence Campbell (JLP) Western Westmoreland and Ivan Lloyd of the Peoples’ National Party (PNP) St. Ann Eastern with 79.1% and 73.6% respectively won more of the A/B in their constituencies than Bustamante.

Latter day saints

Prior to the general election of 1967 the police and army had to be deployed in Western Kingston to protect lives and property and to ensure that residents of the community could vote freely on election day. This constituency was the first to disenfranchise its residents en masse. St. Andrew South Western and St. Andrew Southern joined the league in 1976 under the indomitable leadership of Portia Simpson and Anthony Spaulding respectively. In fact, in the 1980 general election both constituencies had more votes cast than the number of electors on the voters list.

St. Catherine Central represented by Bruce Golding was established as a garrison in the 1993 general election. Although Babsy Grange took the seat for the JLP in 1997, when combined with the votes for the National Democratic Movement (NDM) the A/B won was 80.5%. Bruce subsequently inherited an entrenched garrison from Seaga in 2002 and managed to increase the count of A/B in the by-election to 87.7%.

Garrison in the House

The country is now faced with the dim prospect of elevating the creators of garrisons to Jamaica House (not for the first time, but now the electorate has no choice). In the interim, Jamaica’s first female garrison creator will get into the house. The country should be on the watch to prevent a repeat of the transformation of another “back-o-wall” at taxpayer’s expense. The argument to justify the expenditure under the then Minister of Development and Welfare after the 1962 election did not hold water and neither will it now, the nature of the community remains the same only better organized.

Gerrymander

With the two remaining foundation members of garrison constituencies at the head table the country could be into a new dimension of gutter politics. The stakes are high and the game is nigh, for God sake lets hope I am wrong.

Source: Jamaica Gleaner, Electoral Office of Jamaica