Shovelling votes

Grave-digging is a significant communal activity in St Ann South Eastern. Visiting these sites is a show of respect for the dead and their grieving relatives, and fosters solidarity among peers committed to completing the job, regardless of how tough the soil is. For some electors, grave-diggings may even decide which political party they vote for in the next general election.

Both political candidates vying for St Ann South Eastern – the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Adion Peart, and People’s National Party (PNP) representative, Dr Kenneth Russell – know this. Much like funerals and community football matches, they make sure to visit as many as possible, hugging relatives of the dead, bumping fists with the ‘generals’, and passing out political paraphernalia.

The constituency is rife with social issues; however, failing to attend one of these, especially that of a respected community member in an election season, is arguably unforgivable. They are a part of the constituency’s culture – a feast of coal-cooked food, rum, and laughter – and both Peart and Russell took no chances last Wednesday, visiting the grave-digging for 55-year-old Leroy Bailey, a respected resident of Grierfield, Moneague.

Bailey died last month after ailing for some time.

“It is an important social event. That’s where you show the family that you are sharing in their grief. It is also a communal event,” said Russell.

“What we see now is that there are usually three to four events related to each death: the candlelight vigil, the grave-digging, the ‘nine-night’, and then the funeral. We try to show up to at least two of these events for each.”

Peart, an outsider and newcomer digging a foothold for himself in a constituency that has enjoyed staunch PNP support for decades, grabbed a shovel and flung dirt from Bailey’s grave himself, sparking admiration and commendation from the gathering. Russell would later visit the same site.

No political allegiance

Bailey had never voted in his life, noted his daughter Navia, who explained that she also had no political allegiance. Peart’s presence at her father’s grave site, however, was enough for her to strongly consider giving him her vote, she admitted.

“Right now, I would vote for him. Because, what? I live with my mother, and my mother is a PNP, but I am not die-hearted. Any one of them I see doing good, I will vote for them,” she stressed.

“Look at it, him (Peart) came and I don’t even know him. I know the PNP people dem, and the councillor, but none of them don’t show up for me. He showed up and even went into the grave go throw up dirt. It is the first time I am seeing anything like this,” said the 37-year-old, adding that she was also grateful for Russell’s visit to the site later that afternoon.

“We are smiling today, but you know that on Saturday (at the funeral), no smile is going to be on our faces. We just have to put out the best today, you know,” offered Bailey, recalling the dreaded call from doctors at the St Ann’s Bay Hospital two days after her dad was hastily admitted there. She said knew he would not return home after that hospital stay.

At the Moneague Cemetery, not far away, another grave was being dug for a middle-aged woman last Wednesday. She also died from illness after being hospitalised, and that grave digging was also met with a large gathering, liquor, laughter, and heavy political banter.

PNP foothold

The PNP has had a foothold in the constituency since the late MP Seymour Mullings, who served from 1969 to 2002, his representation only broken in 1983 when the PNP did not contest the snap election that year. He was again MP in 1989 until 2002, when he was succeeded by Aloun Assamba, who served from 2004 to 2007. Assamba made way for Lisa Hanna, who has served four terms, from 2007 to the present. The former Miss World indicated to the party in advance that she would not be seeking re-election in 2025. However, her tenure was marred by years of public discontent between her and the councillors for the four divisions.

“If you look at the data, all the years that Seymour Mullings was there for a couple of decades, we just kept on winning and increasing in popularity and turnout of people voting for him. Then we found out that after the two ladies came, things started going down,” reasoned former PNP councillor for the Moneague division, Donald Simpson, who served under the leadership of both Mullings and Assamba before resigning from politics in the early 2000s.

Lost touch with the constituency

“It is not that the JLP is rising, but that the PNP is going down,” he stressed, noting that in recent years, MPs have lost touch with the constituency. Russell, he said, seemed to be rekindling Seymour’s operation style, and for that, he has every chance to win.

“Seymour would enter any one of the communities, and you don’t know when he was coming. It doesn’t have to be a function. Anytime you see him leave parliament, he is here, and he never used to use security until in the last part when he became finance minister,” said Simpson.

“He had a base with the people, no matter which community he went into. He would come to a grave digging like this, and if he sees you sitting on a tire, he would sit on the tire too or take up a stone and put his kerchief on it and sit down,” he charged. “I don’t expect the ladies to come and do what he did, but still, stop at a bar and associate that way. People look into all those little things because they are human. I don’t defend Labour or PNP, I defend the people dem.”

“These things (showing up) are very important; people will use these things against you. When an MP goes to a grave digging or a funeral, remember you have both sides there and you also have the non-voters and the undecided, but when them see you coming to those places they will say ‘yeah, this man or woman will always assist us because at all time we see them and we can put our little problems to the person. You can’t wait for a big meeting when the crowd comes down and you go on the platform,” said Simpson.

Staunch PNP supporter

One stall operator outside the Moneague Cemetery said she is in full support of Peart’s efforts even though is a staunch PNP supporter. “Him a show him face like wow since him deh yah, and I am not discouraging him. Meck him try him luck. Kenneth now, him is just going to get through, because you the vote dem ust done line out fi Kenneth. But Peart affi work!”

Among the recurrent issues constituents cited last week were inadequate road infrastructure, a lack of potable water supply, and access to work and other social services. While the PNP fervour is still very active in the area, some believe the challenges facing the people in Jamaica’s largest constituency remain the same.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com