The brazen but brutally honest admission by a Papine, St Andrew, voter, in a video that went viral and which became a Bite of the week on TVJ — that she voted for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for three bags of chicken — should not be treated as mere entertainment.

The young woman was certainly not shy to make it known that if “the PNP come right now and buy mi four bag a chicken [towards her fish fry], a deh so mi ting deh”, meaning she would cast her ballot for the highest bidder.

We in this space suspect that the popularity of the video had nothing to do with any novelty regarding vote-buying in Jamaican elections, but more because it resonated with so many people, whether they would engage in the practice or not.

It should be noted that this transactional approach to elections is not restricted to direct vote-buying. Everyone of voting age knows that there are big donors who offer their support on the understanding that they would get first bite at the cherry for contracts from the Government formed by the party if it wins.

Indeed, we should be careful that, while we condemn vote-buying by the ordinary man in the street, we do not ignore those higher up the food chain who have corrupted the political system in ways that the small man cannot.

Another statement of great honesty came from JLP Cabinet member and Member of Parliament Mr Daryl Vaz, who confessed his knowledge that people from both sides of the political fence were asking for compensation for their votes.

“What I have heard from my colleagues, on both sides of the fence, is that it [cash for votes] was at play largely and widely. So what you are seeing, unfortunately, is that elections are becoming more and more transactional,” Mr Vaz told this newspaper.

We commend Mr Vaz for his advice to colleagues that: “Once you encourage that, you are in trouble. Once you start that, then you have no moral authority.”

However, we suggest to Mr Vaz that that horse has already bolted, and indeed, the problem was encouraged, if not initiated, by politicians in the immediate past when Jamaican politics was nasty and ugly.

The question that Jamaica, as a nation, must face is what is to be done to stop this practice — which is said to be getting worse — before it overwhelms the political culture and renders it completely useless.

The state of our electoral arrangement is already quite bad when one considers that, instead of getting better, the voter turnout has drastically fallen to its lowest — 29.6 per cent in the February 26, 2024 local government polls.

Drilling down into that paltry figure would show that an even lower number voted on the notion of civic duty, with some people casting ballots because they had no choice, depending on where they live; or to get the lunch money or stipend for being on the motorcade; or, as we have been discussing, straight up to get cash for votes.

We believe that the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), in its role of political ombudsman, is best placed to attempt to find a solution for this intractable problem. One thing is sure, left to the political parties alone, nothing will change.

As a companion to whatever the ECJ does, there is need for a sustained public education campaign, buttressed by civics in school, to send home the message that no good can come of selling votes for a mess of pottage.