Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness led his Jamaica Labor Party to "a tsunami-like" victory in the country's general elections this week amid a soaring coronavirus pandemic, according to preliminary results.
The center-right JLP won 49 of the 63 seats in Parliament, the largest victory margin since the 1980s, according to an early vote count. It also marked the first time the JLP won back-to-back elections since the 1960s.
Describing the results as "very unfavorable to the People's National Party" during a Friday afternoon news conference, opposition leader Peter Phillips, staying true to an election day promise, announced his intentions to step down as party leader. Phillips said he had written to the PNP's chairman, asking that "the necessary arrangements" be made as soon as practically possible to elect a new leader.
"The ultimate responsibility must rest with the party leader. I consider it my duty to demit office as president of the party," said Phillips, who took over the reins of the party after former prime minister and party leader Portia-Simpson Miller stepped down in 2016. "I have had over these four decades a tremendous opportunity to serve my country and my party in giving public service."
Thursday's elections, called six months ahead of schedule and when Jamaica's COVID-19 infections were still low, was all about Holness and the JLP. Despite the economic slump brought on by the deadly virus, which has spiked in recent weeks, voters rewarded the government for its management.
"Tonight, the victor is the people of Jamaica," Holness said in his election night victory speech shortly before 10 p.m. Jamaica time Thursday while wearing a mask to remind the Caribbean nation of nearly 3 million that it remains in the midst of a deadly pandemic. "You came out in your hundreds of thousands, and you participated in this solemn process of democracy; you voted, you expressed yourself through the ballot."
Recognizing that many of the 1.9 million registered voters did not vote _ the electoral commission estimated the overall voter turnout to be about 37%, the lowest in the country's history, compared to 48% in the 2016 general election _ Holness pledged that "it must never be that the government that emerges from this victory take the people for granted."
"I do want to ensure all of you that I do carry this burden with great consideration of not just those who elected us, but those who are looking on us for future decisions as to whether or not they will participate in the process," Holness, 48, said.
He said his mandate will promote clear policies while ushering Jamaica into an era of stability and growth.
The race was peaceful, although there were reports that a voter had suddenly died at the polls.
The contest pitted the JLP against the PNP led by Phillips, a former finance minister who implemented austerity measures under an International Monetary Fund program that helped put Jamaica on the painful road of economic recovery in 2012 when the People's National Party governed the country.
"It is a shocking defeat," PNP vice president and campaign director Phillip Paulwell told journalists shortly before 9 p.m. Jamaica time.
With votes still being counted in some constituencies, Paulwell said Phillips, in a usual but welcome move, had already called Holness to concede defeat and congratulate him. The loss was "unexpected," Paulwell said as he blamed COVID-19 and lack of party unity for the defeat.
"The people believe that the government has performed. The people believe that the government deserve another term. The Jamaica Labor Party out-strategized us," Paulwell said. "We have to acknowledge that people don't support a party that they perceived is disunited."
One of Jamaica's most seasoned politicians, Phillips has struggled as party leader to unite the PNP, which in turn has struggled to attract young voters and energize its base in recent years. Just hours after polls opened Thursday, he disclosed that he would "in good time" step down from elected politics and as head of the PNP if the party were to lose the elections.
Other JLP winners include Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, Finance Minister Nigel Clarke and National Security Minister Horace Chung.
"What went right is we have the right leader in Andrew Holness," said Desmond McKenzie, former Kingston mayor who served as campaign road manager for the JLP and handily won his West Kingston Parliament seat. "People are voting on performance and no longer on tradition. People want results and this government ... has been delivering since 2016. "
Peter Wickham, a well-known Caribbean pollster who had the JLP leading into the election, called the vote historic.
"I'm keenly interested in the future of Jamaican politics and to see where it goes from here because this election is exciting, is historic and I think it gives us a lot to chew on in the future," Wickham told CEEN TV.
Holness' former university professor and political expert, Trevor Munroe, described the victory as "a tsunami" and compared it to the PNP's 1980 defeat at the hands of late JLP leader and Prime Minister Edward Seaga.
Holness, Munroe said, can now do what he was prevented from doing with only the one-seat slim majority that came out of the JLP's 2016 win. He warned that with the win comes huge responsibility and with the low voter turnout, Holness will need to use his "awesome, unprecedented tsunami-like majority" to build trust among wide sections of the Jamaican people to keep his promises.
Holness is the first leader of the Jamaica Labor Party to be born after the country's 1962 independence from British rule. And his supporters did not wait for his victory speech to begin celebrations.
With only 15 of the seats declared and the JLP leading with nine constituencies decided, JLP voters traveled at top speed down Hope Road in Kingston, hanging out of vehicles and screaming victoriously.
Phillips did manage to retain his St. Andrew East Central seat despite facing stiff competition from Jodian Myrie _ a JLP newcomer and daughter of dancehall artist Buju Banton. Phillips won with 56% of the votes to Myrie's 44%, according to preliminary results.
Hoping to sway voters, Phillips and other PNP candidates argued that Holness had mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic, and that it was they, not the JLP, who rescued the economy in 2012 and put it on a path to growth.
They also noted that unlike the country's recent crime waves that led to 10 state of emergencies and special operations zones, crime was trending downward under PNP leadership. But the party's internal division and the COVID-19 pandemic, which made many voters fearful of going out, was too much to overcome.
Holness, for his part, promised to keep the reins tight on spending while addressing Jamaicans' personal needs. Among the party's promises: a $98 million financial aid package that includes money for small businesses, agriculture and grants.
"I think the manifesto that we have put out is a quite balanced manifest, ensuring that the personal interests are dealt with, people's pension, people's education, people's access to water, people's access to housing, but at the same time, the national interests of maintaining fiscal prudence so that we could actually afford the things," Holness told the media shortly before casting his vote at the Mona High School Polling Station in Eastern St. Andrew.
Following the announcement that the JLP had won with an even larger margin than in 2016, Holness said: "The Jamaican people are maturing in their outlook. They understand that populist policies can have a destructive impact on the national good. So in that regard, Jamaica has won."
The general election was a huge gamble for Holness, who ahead of the vote announced the suspension of traditional campaigning amid a soaring spike in COVID-19 infections. He instead came to rely heavily on social media.
Ahead of the 7 a.m. opening of polls nationwide, the country reported 2,822 COVID-19 cases and 27 deaths _ 139 new confirmed infections recorded just hours before the start of voting.
With the virus and its surging numbers very much on the population's mind, voters wore face masks and shields as they made their way to polling stations.
Local media reported long lines at some polling booths and showed images of voters not respecting social distancing at the entrance of Olympic Gardens Civic Center in Kingston.
Marcia Forbes, an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of West Indies who has been watching the evolution of the use of social media in Jamaican elections in recent years, said the pandemic definitely put a damper on the ambiance.
"I think COVID contained us," said Forbes, describing the mood at her polling station as "a bit more muted, not as jovial, more quiet." "Although we were all in masks, we seemed aware of aerosol spread so not too much talking and laughing."
Forbes noted that Jamaicans love elections and almost everything that usually accompanies the ground campaigning _ pressing flesh, blaring music, drinking rum, camaraderie.
"The virtual campaign can never replace the physical. Physicality counts for a great deal in personal interactions and relationships," said the co-founder of Phase 3 Production. "COVID-19 has put a damper on all aspects of our lives, but we have to live with this until a vaccine is available."
While some voters and political analysts have criticized both parties for not paying enough attention to education and issues affecting the country's youth, management of the pandemic was very much a focus as voters faced the decision whether to change captains in the middle of a storm.
Even though Jamaica did not completely shut down its tourism-dependent economy like some Caribbean nations, it has been hit hard. As a result of measures to curb the pandemic, hotels have been left empty and workers have been left without jobs.
