Voters doubtful

Jamaicans say they must benefit personally or see the creation of more jobs if they are to participate in the next local government election constitutionally due in two months.

That is according to the latest national survey conducted from November 24 to December 7 by the Don Anderson-led Market Research Services Limited.

The poll was an internal one paid for by a group of senior corporate executives of a publicly listed entity, Anderson said.

The veteran pollster said the company, which asked not to be identified, is not affiliated with either of the country’s two main political parties but commissioned the poll to ascertain the political temperature in the island.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three per cent at the 95 per cent confidence level.

Only persons aged 18 years and older and registered to vote were included in the sample.

Nothing could motivate them

Asked what could get them out to vote in the municipal elections widely expected to be held in the coming weeks, 21 per cent of the 1,015 Jamaicans said nothing could motivate them to vote.

A further breakdown of the responses showed that 16 per cent said the creation of more jobs or job opportunities, while 10 per cent said that they would vote if they benefitted personally.

Nine per cent said their votes could be solicited if their communities had fixed infrastructure of road, water, and electricity in place. Similarly, nine per cent said they would vote if their representative becomes more visible in the constituency.

Other responses ranged from the show of accountability and transparency from leaders and the party with the better mandate to policies that impact the lives of all Jamaicans and not just some.

“So people aren’t convinced that local government elections will have that impact. The most important factor is job creation. If they can create more jobs then, boy, maybe, but they don’t believe that too much is going to happen as a result of local government elections,” Anderson told The Gleaner yesterday.

Of those surveyed, 67 per cent indicated that they have voted in previous local elections, while 33 per cent said that they have never voted.

Still, Anderson suggested that the greater figure may not be significant, since the consistency with which people have voted is slim.

“People have voted spasmodically, which is what accounts for the 67 per cent over a period of time,” Anderson said.

Of the 33 per cent, or 334 participants, who said they have never voted, 27 per cent believes their votes do not matter.

Nineteen per cent said they have withheld their votes because they don’t see their representatives “until certain times”.

A further 15 per cent said they do not consider local elections important while another 15 per cent said they were just not interested in doing so.

Eight per cent said they were under the voting age during previous elections.

Anderson said there were more men in the 33 per cent who have never voted than women.

Of the six categories of age groups for participants, the greatest incidents of non-voting were among the 18- to 24-year-olds. Eighty-two per cent of this age group said they have never voted in a local government election.

“This is significantly different from the norm. The norm is 33 per cent, but 82 per cent of the 18 to 24 have never voted. And, therefore, the highest incidents of voting were among the older persons, and there you have it, in the 65 and over age group, 91 per cent of those persons say they have voted in a local government election at some point in time,” he said, adding that 86 per cent of the 55-64 age group have voted.

For those aged 45 to 54, eighty-one per cent indicated that they had voted at some point.

“So the older persons, again by virtue of them being around for a longer time, have higher incidents of voting in local government election but only 18 per cent of the 18 to 24 have ever voted. So pretty stark contrast between the young and the old,” the pollster said.

Former Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott told The Gleaner yesterday that a greater push towards participatory democracy is needed to get people to take local elections serious.

He said community-based organisations, community-development committees, civil society, and the parish development commission must become an integral part of local government reform going forward.

“If you don’t get the citizenry involved in governance at the local level, you won’t get the buy-in that is required, and you won’t get the kind of development that’s required,” Arscott said.

He said municipal corporations are mandated to oversee the development of the townships and parishes but noted that the resources are now being distributed in an ad hoc manner.

He said that during his tenure from 2011 to 2016, resources for drain cleaning, for example, were allocated twice per year.

Arscott said that for that period, there were no drain-cleaning issues.

“There has been an ad hoc approach to how we allocate resources now. So we’re having all kinds of flooding. If we get the local municipalities to work, the job for central government would be much easier,” he said.

Last month, Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie declared that the Jamaica Labour Party has, in the last term and a half, raised the profile of municipal corporations.

“We have changed the face of local government in terms of its accountability [and] transparency, and that is not something one could speak freely of before 2016,” McKenzie said then.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com