With 10 days to go before the February 26 local government election, the island’s two main political parties are assuring Jamaicans that their completed manifestos will be released shortly to the public.
Concerns have come in recent days from political observers that neither the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) nor the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has launched their respective manifestos.
Usually published before an election, a manifesto contains the set of policies and programmes that a political party stands for and would wish to implement if elected to govern.
When quizzed on the issue at Thursday night’s local government debates, the JLP councillor-candidate for the Papine Division, Venesha Phillips, said her party’s local government manifesto has been completed.
“The publication of that manifesto will be made available soon,” she assured.Phillips was quick to remind the public that a manifesto is “not a static document”, but rather, a “working” document.
She added:
We have to remain current and conversant with the issues of the people of Jamaica, and so, the consultation has taken place, and the manifesto has been completed and, at the appropriate time, will be made available to the people of Jamaica.
Responding for the PNP, Shadow Spokesperson on Local Government, Natalie Neita Garvey, also said the Opposition party’s municipal manifesto is completed and will be published soon.
Like Phillips, Neita Garvey provided no timeline as to the date of publication.
The PNP debater argued that there is more to a manifesto “than just words and promises”.
However, social media users were seemingly not impressed by the answers provided by both political parties’ representatives.
“It is strange that both manifestos have been completed but not yet presented to the public after two weeks of campaigning,” a male Facebook user pointed out.
“Clearly Natalie (Neita Garvey) and Ven Ven (Venesha Phillips) are the highlights of this debate, but I have to say their responses on the manifesto issue were lacking and doesn’t inspire confidence to me,” a woman wrote.
Asked another woman: “Next week is the last week of campaigning, so tell me now, who gonna have time to sit down and read manifesto at this stage?”
On Instagram, the perspectives were similar.
“The JLP and the PNP are not serious. A manifesto should have been released days after the election announce. If a even the JLP who knows the date before advance,” a woman commented.
“This is a slap in the face of Jamaicans. Local government nuh really important to dem (political) party here enuh,” a man observed.
Another male Instagram user said a manifesto is not important to him, as he already made up his mind on which party would get his vote.
“Manifestos a fool fool ting, me done see the plan JLP have – shower, prosperity for all. PNP nah no plan fi Jamaica, a dat me say,” he wrote.
