The general election fever is upon us, and before you can say anything of significance, Jamaica’s leading political parties will be out in the field drumming up support from their declining number of troops.

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) are oozing with confidence that, in the case of the former, Jamaica needs another five years under its belt, and regarding the other, ‘Time Come’ to get rid of a set of people they describe as oppressors.

Fundamentally though, there must be at least a semblance of order which will pave the way for responsible behaviour that will not lead to violence and death.

But how can one believe that the fight for power will not be as tense…akin to how the world awaits Donald Trump’s second coming as president of the United States of America?

This is the first time since 2007 that an administration will go as deep into its fifth year in office, thus ushering in a general election based upon constitutional provisions.

The election of December 2011 was due September 2012; that of February 2016 came with 10 months still on the calculator, and in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the JLP could have waited until 2021 for its mandate. 

So, September 2025 it is for a cut off date. You would expect that no announcement will be made before February at the earliest, which will allow for an activity seven months down the road. But I do not think that that will be the case, what with the JLP trailing the PNP in recent opinion polls, and one leading pollster set to enter the field this week to serve up his latest findings.

Jamaica has come far in controlling politically motivated killings and physical attacks, having gotten over the horror of the 1980 election when 844 people died, based upon official statistics.

However, with so much at stake, no one should rule out unlawful acts such as those experienced in years gone by. It is unlikely that Jamaica will ever get near to what occurred in 1980, but even one election murder would be too many.

Power is sweet to those holding onto it, and those wanting to get hold of it. Power though, should not be achieved by way of the spillage of innocent blood.

Vin Edwards – The one and only

You simply had to admire one Vincent ‘Vin’ Edwards – a flamboyant figure in almost everything he touched during his nine decades of living.

Vin died at the start of 2025. He had the ‘Vin touch’ in everything, ranging from sound system operation and music producing, and moving through to, among others, politics and horse racing, the latter for which he was best known by all existing generations.

As president of the Jamaica Racehorse Trainers Association for many years, Vin guided the organisation through choppy seas, irritating some along the way, even leading them to form a breakaway or parallel setup called the United Racehorse Trainers Association, in protest over Vin’s style of governance.

In politics, Vin was savvy when it came to organising things ‘on the ground’, and it was no surprise that after serving as councillor for the Boscobel Division in the then St Mary Parish Council, he was elevated to Member of Parliament for St Mary Western around 1978, succeeding AGR (Allan George Richard) Byfield who was victorious in the 1976 general election, but who suffered a major stroke after collapsing at a meeting of the PNP’s National Executive Council over which he was presiding and soon after stepped away from politics. It was also during that time when the Jamaica Teachers Association called a strike among teachers, while Byfield acted as Minister of Education. 

Byfield had replaced MP Tony Capleton, a former Parliamentary Secretary in the then Ministry of Health and Environmental Control, following his murder. Capleton, after whom the veteran reggae artiste from Islington, St Mary is named, won the seat in 1972.

My recollection is that Vin defeated a Mr Moxam, an Englishman who had relocated to Jamaica and had business in Western St Mary in the by-election. But in 1980, Vin lost to Talbert Forrest at a time when the JLP won 51 seats to the PNP’s nine, in the then 60-seat House of Representatives.

Vin and I got on very well, telling me once that some cousins of mine in western St Mary whom I had never met, had assisted him in his efforts to win the seat.

A man who valued family dearly, Vin would often pick up his grandson Ricardo Bartley from school at Kingston College. Ricardo is the son of former top jockey at Caymanas Park, Hubert Bartley. The young Bartley was a member of KC’s cricket team, a prolific opening batsman at the time and Vin would use the waiting time to walk around the KC playfield, briskly, until Bartley had finished training – thereby, proverbially, killing two birds with one shot – exercising, and picking up after training.

Maybe the only time that Vin was disappointed in me was around 17 years ago when CVM Television at the time, arranged a cricket match at Chedwin Park in St Catherine which would feature a St Catherine team, that included Bartley, playing a CVM Eleven, one Sunday.

Bartley had scored a century only the day before in a Grace Shield match for KC and was hungry for more runs. He was beating the leather with venom when his team batted. I asked team captain Rohan Daley to give me the ball, and told him that in three deliveries I would get Bartley out or he should ban me from bowling, as I had observed a kink in his batting when the ball pitched fractionally outside off stump.

The first ball pitched about a foot outside off stump was belted to Wayne Lewis who stopped a certain four. The next one, also sent wide of off stump touched the boundary rope in record time. I signalled to Daley that the time had come – it was a ball that pitched on off stump and swung to leg. The youngster was on his way back to the dressing room, bowled, and Daley had won my confidence. But Vin was fuming, as if to say, ‘how dare you bowl my grandson’. He said very little to me after the match, but a few days later, things were back to normal during one of his fitness walks at the famed North Street location.

He had so many stories to tell, and reeled them off with vigour. Vin was truly a nation-builder.

Nice age limit move, JCDC

A news item from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) that the age limit for entrants in the popular Miss Jamaica Festival Queen competition has been adjusted, deserves a sip of champagne.

I have always wondered why there should have been such a rule in place, which demanded applicants with the desire to showcase their cultural talent to be between 18 and 24. Now, women up to age 30 may apply if they so desire.

It can be argued that there should be a further slackening of the age restriction, from 30, up to, say 40, and an even further touch-up to begin at the age of consent, 16, because at those ages, the talent pool is quite deep.

It is a start, however, and later on, those in the JCDC who make these decisions, may well be inclined to reexamine the situation.

The Festival Queen competition carries much significance to some of us who have been around for a while, as unlike the Miss Jamaica World and the Miss Jamaica Universe, which is primarily based upon facial and structural beauty, along with oral presentations, the Jamaica Festival Queen competition offers participants a chance to showcase talent that hitherto, few people knew that they had, and adds a richness to the process.

It also has the potential to pave the way for such talent, leading to positive financial results for those involved if they choose to take up singing or drama as a primary or secondary profession later on in life.

Minister with responsibility for culture, ‘Babsy’ Grange has again done well on this one. 

Those police reassignments

When police personnel are reassigned, the move is seen usually by Jamaicans as meaning one of two things: It is either that the individual was not doing a good job up to the time of his new mission; or that he or she was doing so well, that it now becomes imperative that he or she should be assigned to a place where it is believed that those skills will better serve the constabulary.

It is up to the same jury to decide whether or not the moves by Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake are justified.

I have never seen such a mass movement of talent across a geographical landscape in recent time, or ever at all, and I am left to wonder if the upcoming general election has anything to do with any of those transfers, as the Police prepare for the big event.

Getting the crime numbers down must be a priority for any man in charge of security operations, but keeping election conduct under lock and key must have been a factor too.

Many eyes will be following this one.