So election day is December 29. This is the sixth general election to be held in December and the second to run directly through the Christmas season, the first being 57 years ago. The election that first brought the PNP to power was held on January 12, 1955. In those days the period between nomination day and election day by law was 23 days, so nomination day was before Christmas 1954. The law was changed in 1976 to allow a minimum of 16 days and a maximum of 23 days between nomination day and election day.

Never before has an election date been announced in Mandeville. This time around, the strategy appears to be to target Peter Bunting, who is not only one of the charismatic speakers in the People’s National Party, but is viewed as a long-time hopeful for the leadership of the PNP. By keeping Bunting in Mandeville to defend his seat, the JLP plans to win some seats elsewhere.

But could there have been another reason? It costs less to fill Mandeville Square with people than Half- Way-Tree in St Andrew, Parade in downtown Kingston, or Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay. There were, according to estimates of Jamaica Labour Party spokespersons, about 40,000 people there.

To ‘cork’ Half-Way-Tree, Parade or Sam Sharpe Square would need at least 150,000 people to look like a large crowd. At Half-Way-Tree there would need to be a sea of people up Constant Spring Road, down Half-Way-Tree Road, up Hope Road and down Hagley Park Road. Other than that it would have looked scanty, and those who use crowd size to decide how to vote would not have been convinced.

We older ones remember the slogan “150,000 strong cannot be wrong”. It was one of the slogans of the PNP in 1980 yet the PNP lost the election. The announcement of the date of the 1980 election was at Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay.

It is not that crowds win elections, but a certain percentage of potential voters are indeed impressed by crowds. In politics, both major political parties appeal to those who vote by looking at crowd size, which is why both major political parties make the effort to have large mass rallies. It is all a part of the political game.

And speaking of games, Andrew Holness correctly stated that the JLP had changed the game on the PNP when the resignation of Bruce Golding and his succession is taken into account. This strengthens my point that games (read strategies) and mobilisation are more important than issues in Jamaican elections.

Games such as attempting to “lock” rival candidates into their constituencies by having high-profile candidates against them so that they and their campaign workers cannot go elsewhere to campaign are old strategies. Indeed, that is the role of the PNP candidate in West Kingston and the role of the JLP candidate in East Kingston.

The PNP mobilisation of Matthews Lane in Western Kingston usually causes the JLP in West Kingston to organise the vote for their candidate. And while being busy doing so, they do not go outside and help other JLP candidates. Is this how the PNP won all three seats in Portmore in 2007 despite both the national swing to the JLP and the toll road issue? In 2007, the JLP had a clever advertisement in Portmore “I toll you so” (sic).

But there have been other strategies over the years. For almost 19 years (1990-2009) I did a five-minute commentary on IRIE FM. Over the years I have criticised both major political parties. On March 8, 2001, the day of the by-election that sent Shahine Robinson into Parliament for the first time, I was surprised when it was announced that there would not be any commentary that day.

I asked the radio presenter who made the decision. She could not tell me except that she had received a phone call informing her of the decision. No one in authority made the phone call. It was obviously arranged by someone in one of the political parties who feared that I might speak against their party’s candidate. Was someone paid to block it? Perhaps I will never know.

It is the prerogative of any radio station to choose their panelists for any radio programme, let alone election-day commentary. Radio and TV stations depend on announcers, analysts and others to keep their listeners and viewers tuned in and of course for advertisements that come in. It is one thing for an exclusively private station to choose their panelists on some basis other than either performance or non-performance. But should that happen on a station with a broad-based ownership?

In the meantime, it does appear that I will be elsewhere in the media on election night.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com