By Garwin Davis,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
POLITICIANS ARE scrambling feverishly on the eve of the North East St. Ann by-election to woo more than 5,000 squatter votes which many believe could decide the election.
The squatter communities scattered throughout the districts of Steer Town, Mammee Bay and Beecher Town make up almost a quarter of the electorate and were critical to the outcome of the 1997 general election when they voted heavily in favour of the People's National Party's (PNP)'s Danny Melville.
However, political analysts have reported a lot of disenchantment, with Mr. Melville's resignation being the most significant, and many observers believe the squatter votes are there for the taking.
Prime Minister and PNP president P.J. Patterson over the weekend promised to assist squatters with the building of proper houses and said the government would be providing basic amenities such as water and light for them.
"We have always put people first," he said.
But according to Theodore Wallace, a squatter who resides in Steer Town, he hasn't forgiven the PNP for what they did to him and his family in February 1998 and said many settlers were planning to send the party a message tomorrow.
"Before the 1997 election we were told by the PNP we could remain on this land for as long as we wanted and we believed them," he said.
"As soon as the election was over we started to get notices from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) that we should get off the land. Many people like myself ignored the letters and in February 1998 the UDC sent rangers to bulldoze our houses, leaving many of us homeless," he said.
The UDC in 1998 sent out rangers to its Belmont and Roaring River properties in Steer Town and demolished nearly 100 houses belonging to squatters.
The agency's explanation was that it had sent out 30-day notices which the settlers had ignored and was left with no choice but to forcefully remove them.
Last August, there was another effort to remove about 2,500 squatters in the Mammee Bay area with Minister of Water, Karl Blythe, issuing them with seven-day notices. The squatters threatened to stage a massive protest but the minister vowed to stand his ground. But two months ago, before the announcement of the by-election, Mr. Blythe again met the squatters but this time he had a different message.
He told them the Prime Minister had personally told him to work out agreements with the settlers and in his words, "We have to work with the people, not against them."
"Yes, I was shocked," explained Rohan Irving, a Mammee Bay squatter in an interview with The Gleaner in a visit to the area yesterday. "We have seen how the government works when it comes to removing squatters from off their lands so we were preparing for the worst."
Both the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and the JLP, are also heavily courting the squatter votes.
"I have been told by squatters that PNP representatives have been coming around telling them that they are going to be burnt out if they don't vote for them," noted NDM candidate Barbara Clarke. "I was told this before the Sydial tape which has prompted me to believe the threat could be true."
Opposition leader Edward Seaga, who has been touring the squatter areas, said he had been told the same thing. "The PNP are trying to win these votes by threatening the people," Mr. Seaga said. "We will not stand by and allow them to be victimised."
Voters will tomorrow cast their ballots for the PNP's Carrol Jackson, the JLP's Shahine Robinson and the NDM's Clarke.
