Rescheduling an election

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Thursday | August 30, 2007

Martin Henry

Elements of the political system, of the media and of the advocacy NGOs, for their various reasons, have fabricated a deep political and constitutional crisis out of the postponement of the general elections sine die in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean.

The Cabinet is fractured, the people are held in suspense and denied their democratic right to cast their votes now.

Meanwhile, 'the people' are busy nailing back on their roofs, getting their cellphones charged wherever, so the dialogue can continue, searching for water, and accommodating local tourists to their storm-ravaged communities.

The absorbing significance of the elections and of competitive politics to the average Jamaican came home to me forcefully when in a short space of time two senior media practitioners publicly admitted that they had never voted and do not intend to vote. One has risen to the very top of broadcasting and the other is now a senior manager in a media giant, rising from being a foot soldier journalist. The election hype of the media, which these persons, despite private disengagement, and their colleagues spend a great deal of their time cramming down our throats, and the intensity of the political parties in do-or-die election campaigning, is just not the experience or interest of the average Jamaican.

Keep the populace alarmed

Famous American media man, writer and popular philosopher, H.L. Mencken, once observed that "the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and thus clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." Much of the same couldbe said of the media which sees fractured cabinets in the faces of tired ministers, corruption under every bush and stone and threatening omens in every word and action of Government. The only 'crisis' in the land at the moment is the one imposed by Hurricane Dean.

The Gleaner/Bill Johnson poll is confirming that voters are hard-pressed to choose between the candidates in their constituencies in a no-issues, no-better-herring no-better-barrel election which is turning out to be a 'beauty' contest between the two party leaders. Post-Dean looters have caused more loss of sleep than the 'hot' elections.

Jamaica does not have a fixed election date and changing a date and taking some time to set a new one constitutes no crisis whatsoever for state, governance, or people, despite their self-appointed spokespersons like the fright-peddling advocacy NGOs.

The Jamaican Constitution 45 years ago wisely anticipated the disruption of an election by Hurricane Dean in 2007. Section 65 (1) says, "A general election .... shall be held at such time within three months after every dissolution of Parliament as the Governor-General, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, shall appoint by Proclamation published in the Gazette."

Dissolution of Parliament

The immediately preceding Section 64 (4) plainly states that, "if between a dissolution of Parliament and the next ensuing general election .... an emergency arises of such a nature that, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, it is necessary for the two houses or either of them to be summoned before that general election can be held, the Governor-General may, by Proclamation published in the Gazette, summon the two Houses of the preceding Parliament and that Parliament shall thereupon be deemed (except for the purposes of section 65 of this constitution) not to have been dissolved on the date on which the polls are held in the next ensuing general election."

And considering that the outgoing Parliament was not constitutionally due to end before October and could have been extended for a further three-month grace period, everything criss.

A constitutional 'crisis' of sorts was the Prime Minister and Governor-General, both new to state craft, not learning their constitutional ABCs and messing up their respective responsibilities at the start of the process of constitutionally rescheduling a general election. A function of the Attorney-General [for the PM] and the Privy Council [for the G-G] is to provide legal advice preventing these most senior officers of the Constitution from dropping their constitutional balls.

Rest assured that no roof spared by Hurricane Dean was in any danger whatsoever of falling because a nation, busy with post-hurricane recovery, was cruelly forced to wait with bated breath for the new date.

Martin Henry is a communication specialist.