IPS-English JAMAICA: First Woman PM Edged Out
 
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:04:15 -0700

 
Peter Ischyrion

KINGSTON, Sep 11  (IPS)  - In the end, the electorate said no. 
Portia Simpson Miller, the first woman to head a government in 
Jamaica, had appealed to voters to affirm her mandate by 
re-electing the People's National Party (PNP), which she led into 
a general election on Sep. 3 for the first time.

They refused, and as Bruce Golding, 58, takes the oath of office 
as the new prime minister later Tuesday, ending 18 years of 
political wilderness for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the 
populist Simpson Miller, 62, will no doubt be contemplating her 
future in Jamaican politics.

The JLP won 33 of the 60 seats contested in the general election 
that observers, including those from the Caribbean Community and 
the Organisation of American States (OAS), said had adequately 
reflected the will of the population even though the campaign had 
been plagued by violence -- though not on the scale of the 1980 
poll when more than 800 people were killed.

Both parties blamed each other for the violence, which at one 
stage threatened the cancellation of voting in some 
constituencies. However, the OAS later indicated that the ”work 
of the Election Centre and the active participation of 
stakeholders in this mechanism helped facilitate a peaceful 
environment for the holding and management of the elections”.

In the 2002 general election when, under the leadership of PJ 
Patterson, the PNP retained power for an unprecedented fourth 
term, it did so with an eight-seat majority and a five percent 
lead, or 37,027 more votes than those cast for the JLP. 

This time round, the margin of victory is so tiny that the JLP 
received 405,215 ballots or 50.1 percent of the popular vote, 
compared with the 402,275 or 49.7 percent secured by the PNP.

Such was the closeness of the victory in some constituencies that 
Simpson Miller refused to concede defeat on the night the 
preliminary results were announced.

”This election is too close to call. There are a number of seats 
the PNP will be taking action against. We are not going to 
standby and allow people to use criminals to decide the future of 
Jamaica,” she added. 

The Jamaica Observer newspaper was critical of the decision by 
Simpson-Miller.

”If we had any doubt that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller 
was not fit for the job, we no longer do. Her ungracious speech 
Monday night after her party's defeat at the polls was shocking, 
to say the least,” the paper said in an editorial.

”Conceding defeat, especially after a bruising contest, is the 
patriotic duty of great leaders who know that they must send the 
right signal to a nation that would have been divided by a long 
and often bitter rivalry,” it said. 

It took the PNP leader one full week to concede that her party 
had indeed lost -- though it was not washed away by a tsunami, as 
some pollsters had predicted. 

In extending congratulations to Golding, she told supporters she 
would continue ”to work hard to ensure the protection of the 
rights of all our people, particularly of our children and the 
poor”. 

The tradition of campaigns focusing on the party leaders had 
continued in this election. 

”Clearly, the PNP misunderstood the high level of support for 
Simpson Miller and believed it was a reflection of support for 
her style and perhaps that she would be permitted to conduct her 
politics nationally in a way similar to the more parochial level 
at which she operated,” said political scientist Peter Wickham.

Wickham said that while many Jamaicans were fascinated by the 
idea of a woman prime minister, ”this did not mean she would be 
measured by standards that were any different from those 
applicable to the men previously in that post”. 

Many commentators say Golding may have won the election based on 
the debate between the two leaders, a first for Jamaican 
politics. Most analysts had scored Golding as outperforming 
Simpson Miller in his grasp of national issues and the 
presentation of his party's message. 

Pollster Bill Johnson said he believed that voters were ”looking 
for a reason why they should vote for the PNP, whereas the JLP 
has given a reason, albeit not a strong one, of the need for a 
change”. 

Simpson Miller, who made history by becoming the country's first 
female prime minister in 2006, enjoyed popular support among 
Jamaicans, especially the working class, and her charisma and 
long-time advocacy on behalf of the poor made her a loveable 
figure.

Golding, on the other hand, was viewed as being bright, if not 
warm and charismatic. But towards the end of the campaign his 
approval ratings climbed, with at least one poll putting him 
ahead of Simpson Miller as the leader more favoured to run the 
country at this time.

Political commentator Dr. Paul Ashley acknowledged that the 
stakes in the election were very high, with the loser facing the 
real prospect of political oblivion. 

Election Day was ”the most important day for both leaders because 
it seems to me that the loser will ride off into the sunset,” 
Ashley said of both Simpson Miller and Golding, who were leading 
their respective parties into a general election for the first 
time. 

Political commentators had long argued that Simpson Miller faced 
a difficult task in uniting the party she took over from PJ 
Patterson in a bitter presidential election last year and Ashley 
had also wondered whether the PNP would have been able to go into 
the elections putting ”party first instead of personalities”. 

Another political commentator, Michael Burke, recalled that 
during the ”long and bitter presidential race” for the leadership 
of the PNP, none of the four aspirants had been able to receive 
more than 50 percent of the vote, and that the party was plagued 
by ”disunity”.

During the campaign, Golding and the JLP accused the PNP of 
failing to effectively manage the affairs of the country over the 
past 18 years. He said that since 1989, with the exception of the 
first two years, Jamaica had never experienced as much as three 
percent economic growth for two consecutive years, and that the 
country had accumulated some 460,000 unemployed.

He also noted that the murder rate had increased from 413 in 1988 
to 1,500 today, and many children were leaving school without 
being able to read or write.

”We cannot continue to operate like this. We can do better than 
this,” he said.

The electorate agreed.



***** + JAMAICA: Hurricane Dampens Squeaker Election 
(http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38967) + JAMAICA: Prime 
Minister Seeks Her Own Mandate 
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38603)


(END/IPS/CA/IP/PI/KS/07)


 
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