THE PEOPLE'S National Party won an unprecedented fourth term in office in a close-run race on a rainy day of voting in Jamaica's 14th General Election.
The margin of victory was such that JLP Leader Edward Seaga, while accepting that the PNP had a majority of the 60 parliamnentasry seats, deferred a formal concesion in a gracious speech from party headquarters late last night.
Later on PNP Leader P.J. Pattterson, celebrating his third consecutive electoral triumph on his last hurrah, hailed a victory "not only for the party but also for Jamaica". Government and Opposition, he said, must work together to build a better Jamaica.
His declaration that the Security Forces would be working "to eliminate gunmanship once and for all", was a clear reference to the violence which dogged the campaign in the final days of the campaign.
Up to Nomination Day there had been great expectations that peace would prevail throughout. That feeling was reinforced by the intervention of private sector leaders consulting with the political leaders to revive the Code of Political Conduct and the Office of Political Ombudsman.
But with the race really on after nominations the old bogey of political violence surfaced once more in tandem, it seemed, with other criminality the police were hard put to distinguish from conflict between rival parties.
The election thus drew international attention with the unprecedented intervention of Britain, Canada and the United States making pointed appeals to the major party leaders to control their supporters.
The administrative arrangements for the elections were a vast improvement over the shoddy inefficiences of 1997 when "black books" with demographic data to verify identification did not reach many polling stations across the island. Director of Elections Danville Walker called it a good day, despite some polling stations opening late.
While the PNP appears to have won a comfortable working majority it seemed to be the closest since voting took place in 1976 for a 60-seat House of Representatives.
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