SOCIAL distancing proved impossible in St Catherine North Western on Tuesday, as supporters of the country’s two major political parties descended in droves on the historic town of Linstead for nomination day activities.

Even as the country records increased numbers of COVID-19 cases, people were seen flouting health and safety protocols by mingling and gallivanting with each other in the narrow streets.

Barricades placed at the foot of a hill leading to the Linstead Parish Court, the designated nomination centre, halted the march as members of the Jamaican Defence Force manned the entrance.

Under the new guidelines for campaigning, party supporters and their candidates are required to travel by motorcade. However, motorcades to and from the nomination centre in Linstead were on Tuesday accompanied by a slow, lingering procession of supporters on foot.

The COVID-19 Protocol for the Conduct of a National Election, put out by the Electoral Office of Jamaica, as well as interim guidelines for the conduct of election campaign during COVID-19 published by the Ministry of Health and Wellness were recently implemented.

Even so, the excitement which swelled in the town on Tuesday gave a strong showing of support for People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Hugh “Hugo” Graham, who succeeded former general secretary of the PNP Robert Pickersgill in 2018.

Pickersgill, who dominated the party stronghold for more than 30 years, expressed concerns about the lack of social distancing but was confident that the strong show of support indicated an easy victory in St Catherine North Western on September 3.

“Of course, once the fever gets started it is hard to contain. With this kind of turnout, and with this kind of energy, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind. [Jamaica Labour Party candidate Newton] Amos is a two-time loser and he is going to triple it up now,” said Pickersgill.

“If the nomination is like this and we have about six more days to campaign, I don’t know what it will look like on the next side. I am more than pleased and I know all the polls that we have done indicate exactly what we are seeing,” he added.

PNP supporters, who spoke with the Jamaica Observer, flaunted Hugo-branded hand sanitisers, reassuring onlookers that they were following sanitation requirements.

“With the social distancing order that we have to observe, the people still came out in support, even though we have to manage the numbers,” said Graham, businessman and CEO of Paramount Trading.

Meanwhile, Amos explained that he took a deliberate move to limit the number of supporters who participated in his motorcade, in light of COVID-19 concerns.

“Despite the grumblings of our supporters, we did not converge in a usually huge crowd. We are satisfied that we would have satisfied the protocols established,” said Amos.

“We followed the protocol established and that is what is important. We could have bussed in people from all over the constituency; we could have trucked them in to show the strength that we have, in terms of people’s support,” the retired senior cop added.

“The protocol that has been established between the two political parties and our instructions from our party leader and prime minister are very clear. We should put the COVID-19 virus restrictions at the forefront of our work in the constituency, especially on nomination day,” Amos said.