Political commentator believes JLP will win close general election

 

Political commentator Germaine Barrett believes the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will be victorious in the upcoming general election, but not by a wide margin. 

 

The JLP won 49 of the 63 seats in the 2020 parliamentary poll. 

 

Speaking Monday on TVJ's Smile Jamaica, Mr. Barrett said his position aligns with the recent public opinion poll results, which show that voters had more confidence in the ruling party.

 

"I'm guided by the polls and the polls are indicating a slight edge in favour of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party. But it's just outside of the margin of error, and so I don't think either party at this time should be supremely confident," he admitted. 

 

Mr. Barrett said he expects voter turnout this time around will be over 40% compared with 38% in 2020. 

 

He said he has based his prediction on the two main political parties successfully peaking the interest of Jamaicans with their messaging. 

 

"We have been trending in the region of 40-something per cent, which is not hugely better. I think that there is a tremendous amount of engagement that is happening across the society that might see that number landing somewhere around 40%, maybe 50%. But there is a significant number of Jamaicans who are apathetic, who don't see much difference between Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and are concerned that either way, vote for the orange guy or the green guy don't make much of a difference. So I don't know how it is that either party excites those people who are uncommitted and apathetic to get them engaging in the political process."

 

'Tokenistic' 

 

In the meantime, Mr. Barrett has also registered his appointment with a recently approved job description and code of conduct for parliamentarians, describing it as merely superficial. 

 

He said the policy was not necessary to ensure accountability of parliamentarians as there are other available mechanisms. 

 

"I'm not at all pleased. I think that it is largely tokenistic and just designed to appease persons who are concerned at the lack of accountability mechanisms for our parliamentarians. There are number of areas within the society and within the Parliament that exists to hold people accountable. The Parliament itself, the Speaker of the House, the administrators of the Parliament must implement measures to hold parliamentarians accountable who don't attend the sittings of the Parliament, who don't engage in meaningful discussions with respect to legislation that's being tabled and discussed in the Parliament. Those are things that we have to hold them accountable for."

 

Mr. Barrett urged all citizens to "demonstrate a greater commitment to Jamaica" by also playing their part in holding parliamentarians accountable and not resigning themselves from the process. 

 

He called for a system of recall for constituents to be able to remove a non-performing parliamentarian.

 

The parliamentary opposition has expressed dissatisfaction with the job description and code of conduct, saying the process to develop the documents was rushed and not inclusive enough. 

 

In response, government MP Marlene Malahoo Forte said work will continue to improve the policy.