Voters and workers moved purposefully on election day without any significant clashes. Mr O.M. Royes, the chief electoral officer, said that it was a fairly quiet election and he was pleased with his team for the hard work they put in.

Published Wednesday April 11, 1962

THE JLP IS BACK IN POWER

-Jamaica chooses its first Government for Independence

-Bustamante will become first prime minister

-PPP candidates lose deposits

By Gleaner Political Reporter

THE Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Jamaica's first Government under the new Constitution of 1944, was swept back to power yesterday as a plurality of votes in the island's rural areas swamped the People's National Party (PNP), whose strength remained true to the pattern of the 1961 Referendum concentrated in Kingston and St Andrew.

As a result of yesterday's poll, Sir Alexander Bustamante and the JLP will form the country's first Government in Independence and Sir Alexander Bustamante himself is slated to become the island's first prime minister.

The JLP, which gained two Corporate Area seats in 1959, again ended up with two seats, and a total of 26 seats to the PNP's 19.

The election results were not affected by the PNP, whose 16 candidates all lost their deposits, and only one independent, Mrs Rose Leon in West Rural St Andrew, had any effect on the elections at all: a negative one, in that her votes may have cost the JLP this seat which they won in the 1959 elections.

The results have given the JLP three less than the 29 majority which the PNP secured in 1959 and ensure that the PNP will be a strong Opposition; but two sitting ministers, Jonathan Grant, minister of labour and Kenneth Sterling, minister of housing, have lost their seats.

The poll itself was high. A total of 569,781 persons or 71.65 per cent of the island's total electorate of 795,258 voted in yesterday's election – a record poll, the highest previous poll being 66.9 per cent in 1959. But overall the difference between the parties was slight – a matter of 4,647 votes or less than 1 per cent.

The JLP polled 283,351 votes or 49.73 per cent of the total, while the PNP polled 278,704 votes or 48.91 per cent of the total number of votes polled.

HEAVY CONCENTRATION

Of the lesser groups, the PPP polled 4,884 votes or 0.86 per cent of the total votes polled and the eight Independents between them polled 2,842 votes or 0.50 per cent of the total.

The PNP votes were heavily concentrated in the Corporate Area with all the party leaders polling and winning by heavy majorities, except in West Central and East Central Kingston – the constituencies of Wills O. Isaacs and Iris King – where the JLP reduced the PNP’s former majorities.

The largest majorities were received by Sir Alexander Bustamante, JLP leader in South Eastern Clarendon (a majority of 6,850) and by the deputy JLP leader, Donald Sangster (a majority of 6,141). The lowest majority was returned by Roy McNeil in Central St Catherine (a majority of 82).

The islandwide picture shows that the JLP won two seats in the Corporate Area, all the seats in St Thomas, Portland, Trelawny, St James, Hanover, Clarendon and St Catherine and failed by a few votes to take all the seats in St Mary, winning two and losing narrowly in the third.

The PNP won eight seats in the Corporate Area, all the seats in Manchester and took three of the four seats in St Ann.

QUIETEST IN HISTORY

The culmination of the election, the polling and counting of votes yesterday, came at the end of several weeks of campaigning in which both sides went all out for a victory and in which none but a few optimists conceded any chances at all of the PNP led by Millard Johnson and the eight Independents (including two former members of the PNP).

Despite the tensions of the campaigns, however, the elections just concluded can be described as the quietest in the island’s modern history. For the first time, there were no deaths directly attributed to the campaign and incidents of violence were relatively few.

The campaign was carried through on the slogans Power' for the PNP and 'Freedom' for the JLP. Election Day itself was on the whole quiet, except in Western Kingston where rival party supporters clashed frequently and forced the police to use tear gas on several occasions.

Voting was brisk during the day and orderly, and interest remained high throughout the day and again last night as the count of the votes inexorably pointed to a JLP victory. From as early as 7 o'clock a definite trend was established for the JLP and by 8:30 victory had been conceded. Interest was maintained to the very end in the constituencies of North-Western St James, Western St Mary and Central St Catherine which were see-saw affairs with first one candidate and then the other took the lead. But the question of whether the JLP would win the election was never in doubt after 8 o'clock. It was just a question of how many seats the JLP would win – whether 24, 25 or 26.

As the trend became firmly established, JLP supporters all over the country began to celebrate and there were some sporadic clashes between them and PNP supporters in some sections of the Corporate Area.

But by midnight there was quiet in all the streets of Jamaica. Closing down his office last night, O.M. Royes, the chief electoral officer, said: “It has been generally quieter than most general elections although it has been easily the keenest contested general election that I have worked through. The results have shown how keen the contest has been.

“This has been about the most exacting exercise in election work that I have experiences over the many years that I have been engaged on this job."

"My fellow workers, both in the head office and throughout the island, have been a wonderful team which I would be pleased to work with anywhere on any assignment.”

“I consider the reporting of the results of the election has been excellent, and I feel that this has been largely due to the full cooperation of my returning officers, the telegraph offices throughout the island, and especially in Kingston as well as the Jamaica Telephone Company.” 

For feedback: contact the Editorial Department at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com.