By George Henry, Freelance WriterSPALDINGS, Clarendon:
JLP LEADER Edward Seaga has come out against a fixed date for national parliamentary elections in Jamaica.
Addressing thousand of flag-waving, bell-ringing JLP supporters in Spaldings, Clarendon, on Sunday, Mr. Seaga said that to have such a thing in Jamaica could spell disaster for the nation.
He said that if the people got upset with any government and wanted to remove it from power before the fixed election date came around, the people would be unable to do so.
Mr. Seaga argued that several persons were saying that because of the way Prime Minister Patterson had been unable to make up his mind about an election date while holding the country in suspense, Jamaica should have a system similar to that which exists in the United States, whereby presidential elections are held on the same date of the same month every four years.
"In our system if a government chooses to be corrupt or incompetent or arouses the anger of the people, the current system which exists can bring down the government without having to wait for a special date," said Mr. Seaga.
He pointed out that in 1980 the Michael Manley administration could have gone on for another year or more but the nation was upset with the government then, to the extent that the country was being shutdown and so an election had to be called. Mr. Seaga stated that if the election date had been fixed that could not have happened, as the people would have had to wait out the period of office, no matter how badly the government did.
Turning to the People's National Party and what he said were its antics in the current election campaign, Mr. Seaga said the PNP platform had nothing up-lifting about it, as nothing was being said as to what that party intended to do if given a fourth term in office.
Earlier, Mr. Seaga said that Prime Minister P.J. Patterson was playing delaying tactics with the people of Jamaica.
He said that Mr. Patterson was hoping there would be an opportunity in which he could go to an election in which he believed the PNP could be successful, but according to Mr. Seaga, such an opportunity was yet to present itself.
"You can rest assured that that is because if it had, he would have called the election already. He is still searching for that opportunity. It does not appear that that opportunity is coming in September. He has lost that month. It now appears as if he is hoping that the opportunity will come in October. We should put him to rest on that," Mr. Seaga said.
The JLP leader told the sea of loud-cheering green-clad supporters that they should tell the Prime Minister that there was no opportunity coming in October, November or December and so he should face the music now.
Mr. Seaga said the PNP had no new plans which were of any interest to the Jamaican people. "They do not even have a manifesto, so they have descended into pulling down. Our manifesto is aimed at up-lifting people and so we have set up schemes to help them," he said.
As has been the case in recent weeks, the JLP leader continued to sell his party's idea of free education from the basic school to the secondary level of the education system.
He explain why it was important that education be made free at this time, saying that it would not be to relieve the pockets of parents of the strain of having to pay school fees, but to ensure that their children got the best education possible.
There were far too many students, Mr. Seaga said, who were unable to read or write, all because parents were unable to send them to school regularly, due to their inability to pay school fees.
He stated that the JLP's job would be to create education for all and so his party intends to treat every school equally, whether it is traditional or non-traditional.
