THE RECENT election campaign was outstanding for the degree of analysis and punditry that it engendered. Prompted no doubt by the proliferation in media, the electorate was subjected to polls, the prognostications of a psephologist and opinions, not all of them informed, from a variety of sources.
The average voter was bombarded with a range of information that ought to have assisted him in arriving at a decision on what party to support.
Most of the pollsters had predicted a percentage voter turnout in the mid-70s, which we would have expected to inform the percentages that they assigned to the respective political parties. As it happened the voter turnout was 57.08 per cent one of the lowest since the advent of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944. But that has not prevented the pollsters from claiming infallibility for their respective polls.
The low voter turnout is cause for concern. Of 1,301,638 persons who were registered to vote, 743,007 ballots were cast.
This low voter turnout provides prime material for further analysis. Was it because of the rain, which affected most of the island on Election Day?
Was the issue one of voter apathy, which is a growing and worrisome trend internationally? Or was it a case of voters saying to both political parties, a plague on both your houses?
Whatever the reason it would be useful to know as an informed and involved electorate is important, not only in the formulation of public policy, but is essential for the preservation of democracy.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
