Local polls serious business for seniors
Hunched and unsteady in their gait, 75-year-old Ruby Irving and three of her family members, all of whom are in their 70s, could barely make it, but they were determined to exercise their right to vote in yesterday’s local government elections.
It was after midday at the Cumberland High School when the four ambled in. Mrs Irving, a frail looking woman with a strong voice, clutched her husband’s arm for support, while their in-laws, the Webbers, inched by ahead of them. In spite of their physical impairments, however, it was obvious the seniors were excited and that they felt a sense of purpose.
“I can’t talk to you now. Mi come ’bout serious business. When mi done do what mi ah do mi talk to you,” came Mrs Webber’s first answer to why she was voting.
“The older people are interested because we know where we are coming from and where we have been and we have been between government and government so we know,” she said later.
“Young people don’t know what used to happen. Me know everyting, mi go through everything,” she added.
When asked why, considering her physical state, she had gone through the trouble of coming out to vote, Mrs Irving, Webber’s sister, said she wanted a change.
“We want a change of government. We tired a dis one. We want wi road fi fix,” she said.
Her husband, who declined giving his Christian name, said he was voting for the same reasons as his wife.
The seniors’ comments came against the background of the low voter turnout associated with the local polls and with the growing apathy that seems to exist among many of the nation’s younger population.
Last week, a 30-year-old young woman from Independence City in the Portmore municipality told the Observer she had absolutely no interest whatsoever in politics.
“I’m not enumerated. I don’t vote. I don’t care who the government is or who wins. I just roll with it,” she said.
“Nobody in my family votes either,” she announced, sounding almost proud.
Another woman from Gregory Park, who gave her name only as Camille, expressed similar sentiments. “Mi nah vote because mi nuh see dem ah duh nutten fi me,” she said of her local representatives.
Meanwhile, at polling stations all across the St Catherine South and South Eastern constituencies of Portmore yesterday, the reports from outdoor agents were the same: “Things are going slowly.”
Assistant returning officer for St Catherine South Eastern, Michael Wilson, told the Observer that based on the voter turnout last Friday when members of the security forces cast their ballots, he did not expect more than 33 per cent of the registered voters to show up.
“It’s been quiet. There have been very
few confrontations, but nothing major,”
he reported.