In an interview on Nationwide News, People's National Party (PNP) General Secretary Paul Burke admitted that there are party supporters who bought votes in order to ensure that Dwayne Vaz maintained a healthy victory margin in the Central Westmoreland by-election.
Burke also said that persons on social media or those who consistently get their letters published give the impression that their views represent the majority of Jamaicans.
There was a time long ago when the right to vote was restricted to every sane adult who owned property or paid direct taxes to the amount of three pounds a year. Because of agitation/disturbances of the 1930s this led to the granting of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 which meant that every Jamaican over 21 years would be able to vote for the government of his or her choice whether he/she owned property. Today Jamaicans are not as poor as in 1944 but they are hopeless. Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, a senior Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member said that she was taken to the back of a house in central Westmoreland where an old lady told her that she had been trying for years to complete a pit latrine but couldn't. Today she has a chance of earning money that she won't have for a long time to come. If you are faced with parliamentarians who drive around in SUVs valuing multiple millions of dollars and you can barely afford chicken back, or Jamaica Public Service bills, is it absurd to expect that you will accept a bribe? No! Our leaders have so impoverished Jamaicans that they are willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder. Since a ticket to Jamaica's highest office is for sale, it isn't far-fetched to expect that Gordon House will one day be occupied by nefarious characters who are simply so rich that they can buy their way in.
Mark Clarke
Stop buying votes
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Burke also said that persons on social media or those who consistently get their letters published give the impression that their views represent the majority of Jamaicans.
There was a time long ago when the right to vote was restricted to every sane adult who owned property or paid direct taxes to the amount of three pounds a year. Because of agitation/disturbances of the 1930s this led to the granting of Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944 which meant that every Jamaican over 21 years would be able to vote for the government of his or her choice whether he/she owned property. Today Jamaicans are not as poor as in 1944 but they are hopeless. Olivia 'Babsy' Grange, a senior Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) member said that she was taken to the back of a house in central Westmoreland where an old lady told her that she had been trying for years to complete a pit latrine but couldn't. Today she has a chance of earning money that she won't have for a long time to come. If you are faced with parliamentarians who drive around in SUVs valuing multiple millions of dollars and you can barely afford chicken back, or Jamaica Public Service bills, is it absurd to expect that you will accept a bribe? No! Our leaders have so impoverished Jamaicans that they are willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder. Since a ticket to Jamaica's highest office is for sale, it isn't far-fetched to expect that Gordon House will one day be occupied by nefarious characters who are simply so rich that they can buy their way in.
Mark Clarke
Stop buying votes
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