Last Monday’s nomination day television scenes must have gladdened the hearts of everyone who loves this country. For the laughing faces of Labourites and Comrades dancing together were proof positive of the proud joy we as a people take in our ability to freely elect our leaders. And justifiably so, because for all its faults independent Jamaica has been a political marvel, and is surely a leading contender for the title of “world’s most exuberant democracy”.

It was fascinating to see how diverse in race and colour our candidates were. For though Jamaica is a mostly black country and proud of it, race is clearly a secondary consideration for our voters. Like most things in this God blessed land we take it for granted and assume it’s like this all over the world. But the number of countries which have enjoyed 40 years of unbroken democracy can be counted on fingers and toes. And the ones that regularly elect candidates of minority races are even scarcer, and indeed may not number more than one.

There are certainly not many countries in which a George Lyn could even consider running against a Pearnel Charles. A Chinese man challenging a black man in a black country? Most places would think the idea laughably absurd! But here the fact that Lyn won Clarendon North Central was not even considered worthy of comment. Yes the political tribalism we suffer from is lamentable. But thank God it’s only a matter of green and orange shirts and not of black and brown skins like in Trinidad or of Hindu and Moslem faiths as in India.

Yet garrisonism is undoubtedly a serious threat to the continued survival of our wonderful democratic accomplishment. For if this cancer is not arrested soon it could eventually rot the heart of our political system and leave a hollow shell as in places like Zimbabwe.

The entire concept democracy is based on the ability of every person to freely cast their ballot for the candidate of their choice and have it fairly counted. But there are many places in Jamaica where this basic tenet no longer holds true and persons cannot vote with their conscience for fear of violent reprisal from those who disagree with their choice.

In the 1997 election there were 16 constituencies where the losing major party candidate got less than one third of the votes cast. The PNP won 14 and the JLP 2.

Not all these can be considered garrisons, which might be defined as a constituency in which a significant enough number of voters are unable to vote freely and thus preclude a fair outcome. Many were won on merit, with the victorious candidate being perceived as genuinely superior by the overwhelming majority of people casting ballots.

But when a candidate gets 98% or 92% of the vote it’s safe to assume not everyone could vote as they pleased. It’s difficult to believe that 98% of any group of Jamaicans could see things the same way!

It would take a lot more than a 1,000 words to address the controversial topics of why garrisons exist and how they came to be. And of course it’s not only lopsided constituencies that contain them, because many seats have relatively close outcomes only because the garrison pockets on each side roughly balance each other out. St. Andrew West Central, which voted 50.2% JLP and 49.6% PNP in 1997 is a case in point.

Garrisonism was once considered strictly a feature of the ‘inner-city’ where – so the theory went – poverty and unemployment were so rife that money and guns were irresistible to uneducated youth with no hope. But recently the phenomenon has spread into the constituency where I live, Central Manchester.

Mandeville is widely considered the most prosperous and well educated town in the island, the very epitome of bourgeoisness, at least by Jamaican standards. It’s the last place where one would expect the phenomenon of violent political intimidation to raise its ugly head. But over the past few years we have heard more and more whispers of guns and dons and donmanship. And suddenly with the election looming these whispers have become shouts, with both the PNP’s John Junor and the JLP’s Norman Horne publicly accusing each other of unsavoury practices.

In a bid to avert this, a group of citizens - under the aegis of the Minister’s fraternal and including Chamber of Commerce and Police Force members - have launched a pre-emptive peace initiative to avert a plunge down what looks like an increasingly slippery slope. The hope is that tensions can be defused and a free and fair vote ensured by having both candidates tour all troubled areas together and make a joint call for peace.

Central Jamaica is only one of 60 constituencies and the disturbances there might seem like a tea party compared to the regular goings on in hardcore corporate area garrisons. Yet the problems here should be of great concern to the entire nation. For if the wealthiest, most orderly and best educated area in the country comes under the political control of persons who cannot be voted out of office, what hope is there for the rest of Jamaica? changkob@hotmail.com