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Danville's decision
Danville's decision
Former director of elections must give up US passport if he wants to seek political office
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, October 30, 2011
DANVILLE Walker will have to make the proven politically tough decision of dispatching his United States passport to the US Embassy in Liguanea in St Andrew soon, if he wants to be a successful member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) aggregation in the next general election.
Walker, 52, who is expected to resign as Customs chief early this week and represent the JLP against the People's National Party's (PNP's) sitting member of parliament in Central Manchester, Peter Bunting, still reportedly holds United States citizenship, a contentious issue emerging from the 2007 poll when key JLP and PNP operatives were fingered for doing the same thing.
WALKER... the Customs chief who has been approached by the JLP to contest Central Manchester
1/2
This is a breach of the Jamaican Constitution, which states clearly that no Jamaican seeking public political office is allowed to hold citizenship of another country unless it is a Commonwealth state.
Walker too, broke Jamaican law then, as he held dual citizenship while he served as director of elections between 1997 and 2009.
Walker, who returned to Jamaica permanently after living and working in the United States between the 1980s and 90s was, ironically, approved without a fuss by the then ruling PNP for the job to succeed Major Winston Sutherland, another former army man who worked, effectively, part-time at the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control as a referee and administrator.
Sutherland, who now travels extensively to Spain, England and Canada as part of his present job, was also approached to get involved in representational politics while he served as director of elections, but declined invitations.
Having left Jamaica soon after he served the local army at the high point of violence in the 1980 election, Walker, who was a lieutenant, later served the United States army and worked privately before returning home.
He gained respect from both political sides during the early years of his leadership at the Electoral Office of Jamaica, but in later years whispers came from the PNP camp about his close association and seeming friendship with certain senior JLP officials, among them Audley Shaw, now the finance minister and member of parliament for Manchester North East, and Daryl Vaz, MP for Portland East and minister in charge of telecommunications.
Walker later defended the 'legitimate nomination' of Vaz shortly after the MP's dual citizenship case first came up a year after the general election of 2007.
It was also admitted then that a personal relationship had been forged between Walker and Vaz over the purchase of a motor bike from the MP by Walker for his son.
As the dual citizenship row dragged on, Walker was forced to demit office as director of elections in 2009 when it became public that he too held dual citizenship. His move to head the Customs department was quickly approved and Walker gained favour in the eyes of the public for placing a lid on corruption and wanton waste at Jamaica's points of entry.
However, his style of leadership angered some Customs staff members, who complained that they were being victimised as they were not among his chosen few. But Walker vehemently denied the accusation, saying that it had its genesis in opposition to his moves to clean up the department that for years was stigmatised as corrupt.
The sidelined workers identified a building housed in downtown Kingston which they called the 'Customs Never Never Land', which they said was a career dumping ground for those who did not find favour with the new director.
In interviews with the Observer then, Walker said that he was committed to protecting the government's revenue and would not allow some who wanted to upset the process to do so.
The commissioner of customs also expressed relief that he was out of the electoral apparatus and, as such, could fulfil his life-long dream of voting in a Jamaican election for the first time, his only voting experience prior being in a United States presidential election. Jamaican law prohibits the director of elections and the independent members of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica to vote.
He described his experience voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election in the United States as something special.
"The first and only person I have ever voted for in my life was Barack Obama. It is amazing," said Walker, who gained US citizenship by naturalisation.
"I am finally on the voter's list. It's the first time I've been on a voter's list in Jamaica," Walker told the Observer in the November 2009 interview.
"I was 50 years old recently and I have never voted in a Jamaican election, and so I am looking forward," said Walker.
At the time, entering politics was far from Walker's mind, as he was contemplating doing other things by the time the election, due next year, came around.
"In the next election I would love to work as a CAFFE observer, but I don't know if my application will be approved. That's what I want to do," he said, referring to the election monitoring group — Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections.
"As a soldier in the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), it was so political in the 1980 election that I decided that I wasn't going to even register to vote," he said.
"After that, I decided to live in the States, and when I returned I was director of elections, so I could not vote again, because directors of election and the independent members on the commission have to be removed from the voter's list if they were on it and they cannot vote.
"During the last time I spent with the EOJ some people were saying how I became political, but they had no idea how non-political I was. My thing is, I work for my country and I don't care who is running the country," he said in the interview published November 16.
Some political observers believe that if Walker decides to run on a JLP slate the issue will linger.
"This one will not go away," one told the Sunday Observer, while declining to have his name stated.
"This is an unprecedented move. Never in Jamaica's history have we seen someone who was so close to the election machinery now on the verge of publicly declaring his candidacy for a political party. Ethically, this is not right, because a position like that may be diluted to a point where the public will not trust it.
"The public is likely to believe that in coming years other directors of election will follow suit. What is to prevent Mr (Orrett) Fisher from running in the election in 2017 for example?" the observer said of the present director, a management specialist and former fast bowler for Melbourne Cricket Club.
The political observer also suggested that there should be a 'cooling out' period for such officials, if they left such an office and decided to enter representational politics.
"Former directors of election should be barred from running for public office for a period... for at least 10 years after he demits office, to place some amount of respectability into the system," he said.
Already there seems to be jitters in the PNP camp, as officers of that party know that Walker is well versed with the constituency set-up of Central Manchester.
"His is a big name and he knows the (election) system well, but he can be beaten, just like others before have been beaten," one senior PNP official told the Sunday Observer.
"You must remember that the PNP has not lost that seat since the 1980 election, and that is unlikely to change. If Andrew Holness himself decides to run there, he will have a tough time beating Bunting. He (Bunting) has huge financial resources, something which is always key in an election," the senior official said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1cGIeQhfD
Former director of elections must give up US passport if he wants to seek political office
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, October 30, 2011
DANVILLE Walker will have to make the proven politically tough decision of dispatching his United States passport to the US Embassy in Liguanea in St Andrew soon, if he wants to be a successful member of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) aggregation in the next general election.
Walker, 52, who is expected to resign as Customs chief early this week and represent the JLP against the People's National Party's (PNP's) sitting member of parliament in Central Manchester, Peter Bunting, still reportedly holds United States citizenship, a contentious issue emerging from the 2007 poll when key JLP and PNP operatives were fingered for doing the same thing.
WALKER... the Customs chief who has been approached by the JLP to contest Central Manchester
1/2
This is a breach of the Jamaican Constitution, which states clearly that no Jamaican seeking public political office is allowed to hold citizenship of another country unless it is a Commonwealth state.
Walker too, broke Jamaican law then, as he held dual citizenship while he served as director of elections between 1997 and 2009.
Walker, who returned to Jamaica permanently after living and working in the United States between the 1980s and 90s was, ironically, approved without a fuss by the then ruling PNP for the job to succeed Major Winston Sutherland, another former army man who worked, effectively, part-time at the Jamaica Boxing Board of Control as a referee and administrator.
Sutherland, who now travels extensively to Spain, England and Canada as part of his present job, was also approached to get involved in representational politics while he served as director of elections, but declined invitations.
Having left Jamaica soon after he served the local army at the high point of violence in the 1980 election, Walker, who was a lieutenant, later served the United States army and worked privately before returning home.
He gained respect from both political sides during the early years of his leadership at the Electoral Office of Jamaica, but in later years whispers came from the PNP camp about his close association and seeming friendship with certain senior JLP officials, among them Audley Shaw, now the finance minister and member of parliament for Manchester North East, and Daryl Vaz, MP for Portland East and minister in charge of telecommunications.
Walker later defended the 'legitimate nomination' of Vaz shortly after the MP's dual citizenship case first came up a year after the general election of 2007.
It was also admitted then that a personal relationship had been forged between Walker and Vaz over the purchase of a motor bike from the MP by Walker for his son.
As the dual citizenship row dragged on, Walker was forced to demit office as director of elections in 2009 when it became public that he too held dual citizenship. His move to head the Customs department was quickly approved and Walker gained favour in the eyes of the public for placing a lid on corruption and wanton waste at Jamaica's points of entry.
However, his style of leadership angered some Customs staff members, who complained that they were being victimised as they were not among his chosen few. But Walker vehemently denied the accusation, saying that it had its genesis in opposition to his moves to clean up the department that for years was stigmatised as corrupt.
The sidelined workers identified a building housed in downtown Kingston which they called the 'Customs Never Never Land', which they said was a career dumping ground for those who did not find favour with the new director.
In interviews with the Observer then, Walker said that he was committed to protecting the government's revenue and would not allow some who wanted to upset the process to do so.
The commissioner of customs also expressed relief that he was out of the electoral apparatus and, as such, could fulfil his life-long dream of voting in a Jamaican election for the first time, his only voting experience prior being in a United States presidential election. Jamaican law prohibits the director of elections and the independent members of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica to vote.
He described his experience voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election in the United States as something special.
"The first and only person I have ever voted for in my life was Barack Obama. It is amazing," said Walker, who gained US citizenship by naturalisation.
"I am finally on the voter's list. It's the first time I've been on a voter's list in Jamaica," Walker told the Observer in the November 2009 interview.
"I was 50 years old recently and I have never voted in a Jamaican election, and so I am looking forward," said Walker.
At the time, entering politics was far from Walker's mind, as he was contemplating doing other things by the time the election, due next year, came around.
"In the next election I would love to work as a CAFFE observer, but I don't know if my application will be approved. That's what I want to do," he said, referring to the election monitoring group — Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections.
"As a soldier in the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), it was so political in the 1980 election that I decided that I wasn't going to even register to vote," he said.
"After that, I decided to live in the States, and when I returned I was director of elections, so I could not vote again, because directors of election and the independent members on the commission have to be removed from the voter's list if they were on it and they cannot vote.
"During the last time I spent with the EOJ some people were saying how I became political, but they had no idea how non-political I was. My thing is, I work for my country and I don't care who is running the country," he said in the interview published November 16.
Some political observers believe that if Walker decides to run on a JLP slate the issue will linger.
"This one will not go away," one told the Sunday Observer, while declining to have his name stated.
"This is an unprecedented move. Never in Jamaica's history have we seen someone who was so close to the election machinery now on the verge of publicly declaring his candidacy for a political party. Ethically, this is not right, because a position like that may be diluted to a point where the public will not trust it.
"The public is likely to believe that in coming years other directors of election will follow suit. What is to prevent Mr (Orrett) Fisher from running in the election in 2017 for example?" the observer said of the present director, a management specialist and former fast bowler for Melbourne Cricket Club.
The political observer also suggested that there should be a 'cooling out' period for such officials, if they left such an office and decided to enter representational politics.
"Former directors of election should be barred from running for public office for a period... for at least 10 years after he demits office, to place some amount of respectability into the system," he said.
Already there seems to be jitters in the PNP camp, as officers of that party know that Walker is well versed with the constituency set-up of Central Manchester.
"His is a big name and he knows the (election) system well, but he can be beaten, just like others before have been beaten," one senior PNP official told the Sunday Observer.
"You must remember that the PNP has not lost that seat since the 1980 election, and that is unlikely to change. If Andrew Holness himself decides to run there, he will have a tough time beating Bunting. He (Bunting) has huge financial resources, something which is always key in an election," the senior official said.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1cGIeQhfD
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