Now that His Excellency Professor Kenneth Hall, the Governor-General, has issued the proclamation dissolving Parliament, there is no turning back, but for exceptional circumstances.

All things being equal, therefore, candidates contesting the 60 seats in the House of Representatives will file their nomination papers on August 7 and Jamaicans will vote 20 days later. We expect that, over the next several weeks, there will be an intensification of the political campaign that has been going on for months.

However, we hope for change in a number of respects, not least being, as we raised in these columns yesterday, in the quality of the discourse. In this regard, we implore the political parties to dispense with the shrieking, prancing minstrels calling opponents devils and liars, as in the abysmal displays of Donald Buchanan, who holds the high office of minister and general secretary of the governing People's National Party.

Nor do we expect to see a shameful episode of a senior politician making light of a physical attack on someone from the opposing side, as was the gleeful, infantile response of the JLP's Karl Samuda when the PNP's K.D. Knight was assaulted on a platform.

Maybe then we can get the politicians to deal with the electorate as intelligent adults who want to be addressed on issues. Two things are important in this regard.

First, the parties must publish their manifestos without delay, providing the electorate with a written record of their platforms. The absence of such documents enlarges the opportunity for verbal waffle by individuals, without their offerings being tested against official positions. Late release of the documents limits the time for their study and analysis, and thereby ample opportunity to determine what is truly deliverable and at what price; which is perhaps the intent of the parties.

But even without the manifestos, we expect that at this phase of the campaign theparty spokespersons will eschew the hype, deal with facts and outline credible visions for their constituencies and for Jamaica as a whole. For instance, free education must move beyond sloganeering, either for or against. Let's hear what specifically is on offer, at what price, net and incremental, and what are the deliverables. Perhaps there are credibl>While we consider all the foregoing exceedingly critical to people making an informed choice about whom they want as their representatives and the party to form the government, nothing is more important than behaviour that ensures that we have elections that are free and fair. That cannot happen in an atmosphere of violence and intimidation.

The parties and their leaders who, to their credit, have spoken out against violence, must be relentless in their efforts on this front and be willing to act firmly against those in their midst who see violence as a tool of democratic politics. It is not.

But we look not only to the politicians in this regard. The Electoral Commission and the constituted authority must be willing and ready to use their powers to halt and void elections in circumstances where violence comes into play. We look forward to an election which, as they say, is free and fair and free from fear.