Cries of corruption were synonymous with Jamaica’s general elections going into the 1997 national polls, contested by the then ruling People’s National Party (PNP), the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and the National Democratic Movement. Danville Walker, recently appointed director of elections, was determined to allay such talk and supported calls for outside observers.

The Electoral Advisory Committee, which comprised members of both parties and the private sector, agreed that the Carter Center was perfect to oversee the polls. Founded in 1982 in Atlanta, Georgia, it was headed by Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States.

Carter, who died in Georgia on December 29, 2024 at age 100, served as president from 1977 to 1981. He was accompanied to Jamaica in December 1997 by his wife Rosalynn and a team that comprised General Colin Powell, former US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield.

“My impression was that this was a decent man who is trying to make a difference in the world. A soft-spoken person who listened more than he talked,” recalled Walker, in an interview with the Jamaica Observer. “The Carter Center got involved because the then Electoral Advisory Committee, now Electoral Commission, invited them as well as other international observer groups to observe the elections. There were those who wouldn’t join the call but did not oppose any group coming.”

Prior to Jamaica, Carter and his associates monitored elections in China, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, and Mexico. According to the organisation’s website, “Observers meet with election officials and party leaders to discuss electoral procedures. Sometimes they mediate election disputes and help all sides to agree on election rules. During this phase, assessments are made of the voter registration process, voter education efforts, and the fairness of the campaign field of play. On election day, observers are dispatched with systematic survey forms to urban and rural areas to witness preparations at poll openings, voting, and vote counting to try to determine whether the vote was secret and fair at the sites they visited.”

After the 1997 Jamaican election, for which the PNP won 50 of the 60 seats, Carter gave officials a mixed review.

“The Carter Center’s view of the 1997 election was that there were a significant number of administrative glitches but that the will of the people was reflected in the result,” he said.

When they returned for the October 2002 election, Carter sang a different tune.

“We had a markedly different electoral system; in fact, many were of the view that we had become an international example of an electoral system and its administration. Jimmy Carter said to me that of all the elections he had observed Jamaica 2002 was the first that there were no disputes about the accuracy of the voters’ list. He was amazed by this,” said Walker.

“I said to him that this was because we had built a partnership in preparing the list. It is not ‘my’ list or the Electoral Office’s list but ‘our’ list, the political parties and the administrators. The Carter Center remarked that we had made great strides since his last visit but that we should continue to work to reduce political intimidation and violence.”

Walker served as director of elections until November 2008.