NDM here to stay

[Sickko]

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BY LUKE DOUGLAS Observer writer




DESPITE its dismal showing in Monday’s general elections, the National Democratic Movement (NDM) is harbouring no thoughts of bowing out of the electoral process.
On Tuesday, party president Earl DeLisser insisted that there was a void among the political offerings of the country, as evidenced by the low voter turnout of 60 per cent. He said with adequate funding, the NDM could gain the support of the electorate and eventually win seats in Parliament.
“Having regard to the funds we had, which were very limited, we were not able to campaign (properly); we were only able to put in a presence in the constituency. I think we got very good value for our money,” said DeLisser, who gained a mere 42 votes for the NDM in West St Thomas.
Preliminary results showed that the party’s 11 candidates only mustered 540 votes out of the more than 800,000 polled in the election islandwide. Two received more than 100 votes each.
But the NDM president said although the party did very little organisation before the elections, they contested the polls to keep the name of the party alive.
“We thought that we should put up the NDM just for name recognition. If we did not contest the election, I think we would have been well and truly dead,” DeLisser told the Observer.
He expects things to be different the next time around, which he feels will be “within three years”.
“We are to go into the field and build an organisation and see what happens next time,” the ever-optimistic DeLisser disclosed.
DeLisser, a lawyer, feels the 60 per cent voter turnout suggests that many Jamaicans are unsatisfied with what the two major parties have to offer.
“There is a vacuum and as to whether we in the NDM can fill it remains to be seen,” he said.
In 1995, the NDM was founded in a wave of optimism at the prospect of achieving state power, with Prime Minister-elect Bruce Golding as its first president. Golding had recently resigned from the JLP, where he had held several key positions, including that of chairman. A number of other Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) stalwarts joined the NDM, including former member of parliament Brascoe Lee.
The party, which promised a new and different approach to politics, had among its ranks lecturer Chris Tufton, businessman Wayne Chen, lawyer Wentworth Charles and educator Hyacinth Bennett.
But the NDM’s fortunes floundered after it contested the 1997 general elections and failed to win a single seat.
In 2001, Golding resigned and returned to the JLP, leaving the NDM without a nationally recognised leader. Bennett succeeded Golding as president, only to resign in 2003.
The NDM president feels that the party’s core ideal of separating the executive and legislative arms of government remains unexplored.
“The bedrock of the NDM is that politicians must not run the country. We must get ministers from society at large, similar to what they have in the United States. We say a politician’s duty is to service his constituency,” DeLisser stated.
The Cabinet should be drawn from the best and brightest in Jamaica, the NDM believes.
“We must put an A Team consisting of the best minds in the country,” DeLisser stated passionately.
He pointed out that several aspects from the JLP’s manifesto are based on the policies of the NDM, such as the constituency fund of 2.5 per cent of the budget (the NDM says five per cent). However, he does not feel that Golding will be able to implement the separation of powers in the JLP.
“I don’t see Mr Golding going there. Any time he goes there, at that time we could say the NDM is irrelevant,” DeLisser conceded.
Meanwhile, vice-president Pepon Ruddock feels the NDM could play an important role in Jamaica’s democracy.
“We see the NDM as becoming the referee between
the two major parties...we hope people will see the importance of a third party to neutralise the other two,” he said.
Until then, the NDM will continue to fight on, as Delisser said pthe party was encouraged by the response of persons on the campaign trail.
“The people told me that I started to campaign too late, because what I am saying is very interesting. They told me next time, just come out earlier,” he disclosed.
He said the NDM does not need the huge budgets of the PNP and JLP to make an impact on the electorate.
“If I had half a million dollars and did not get 5,000 votes I would be shocked,” DeLisser asserted.


RUDDOCK...we see the NDM as becoming the referee between the two major parties



Patient voters wait their turn to cast their ballots at polling division #49 at the Sylvia Foot Infant Centre in Kingston Western. Preliminary results showed that the NDM’s 11 candidates only mustered 540 votes out of the more than 800,000 ballots cast in Monday’s general election, which was won by the Jamaica Labour Party. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)