'Tired of local politics'

Icolyn Kepple displays some of her recently "slow-selling" fried fish in the Old Harbour Square in St. Catherine last week. - Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer

Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter

"Mi vote all the while but mi don't think mi going vote again. Not this time. Whether you are a Labourite or a PNP, mi nuh business."

ICOLYN KEPPLE won't be skipping to cast her ballot for anyone in the Local Government elections come June 19.

The 52-year-old fried fish vendor from Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, says she has had it with the false promises of her "grassroots" representation and until they can do something about the rampant unemployment in her home and her suffering fried fish business, nobody will get her vote.

"Mi vote all the while but mi don't think mi going vote again. Not this time. Whether you are a Labourite or a PNP, mi nuh business," she says.

The lone breadwinner in a household of 10, Miss Kepple complains bitterly of her dwindling fish sales caused by her customers now using the new Old Harbour Bypass. Desperate for some help, she says, she went to her councillor for some help and she is still waiting.

"Mi go to the councillor fi my area and ask him fi some help about four months now. And everytime him promise help and the help can't reach all now.

"Mi naw vote. Mi a 52 and mi a vote from me a 18. Mi born come see mi parents vote PNP and mi vote PNP because of them but mi not doing it anymore, because mi nuh get nothing. Me will vote fi the people them who pass and buy my fish," says the angry woman who is now one of only three persons selling fried fish in the Old Harbour Square. Months ago, she explains, there used to be about 40 vendors but many of them left when sales started going down.

Clifton Gayle, 61, is the father of seven unemployed children and all of them are living with him. His youngest are 19-year-old twins, while his oldest is 34. How will local politics change this picture, he asks.

"From Old Harbour Bay back to May Pen, we need jobs," he said. "Mi not even know who is the councillor. Them need fi free the people them now and give them some work."

Despite the lamentations of the older voters, however, younger voters like Carol Barnett, 29, from Independence City, Portmore says she has got much help from her councillor.

"My councillor ah the best, mi go to him fi any little thing, whether is work, mi out of money, him give me a night dinner. PNP never do me that yet, mi can't go to them because them ago say ray-ray you live inna shower area. So it's all good," she says.

Development Minister, Dr. Paul Robertson, pointed out that the Government is already trying to deal with many of the problems being pointed out by voters in the system of local government.

TRADITION

"We are trying to ensure that local governance is more effective," he told The Sunday Gleaner in an interview last week.

"The tradition has been that fewer people participate at the Local Government level. I wish it weren't so but that's the fact of life. I really think that if we can make it more effective then more people will see the reason why they should participate. We think what we are trying here in Portmore could lead to that effect.

Unlike previous polls where voter apathy was the accepted norm, however the findings of a recent Gleaner commissioned Don Anderson poll suggested that the June 19 Local Government elections could have an unusually high turnout.