Orville Taylor, Contributor

If she does not announce the election later today, then Prime Minister, the Right Honourable anointed, Portia Lucretia Simpson Miller can keep the information to herself because the boring delay does nothing to enhance her popularity.

It is neither in the interest of the Peoples' National Party (PNP) nor the Jamaican people to keep us guessing so long. This is reminiscent of P.J. Patterson smugly smiling or grinning for two years about his imminent departure. Patterson got so caught up in his feeling of self-importance that his anticipated 'boom' turned out to be a 'tush' because the Jamaican public had lost interest in it.

Portia should recall that the 'P' does not stand for Percival or Portia. So, hopefully, we won't see the 'P' hold on to the information past today. If she does, she runs the risk of quickly fading into the background like her predecessor, who departed in '06, is being so rapidly forgotten, it seems like '94.

The best evidence that the election should have been long called was presented by the House of Representatives on Tuesday. It was shameful but symbolic, that the affairs of the nation were left abegging, while parliamentarians were virtually all absent, ostensibly on the campaign trail.

Long election watch

Last week, a 'Portiapologist' sought to take issue with me over my stance that the nation has been on election watch for around four years and Sista P should just reveal the date because we have a country to run. He attempted to admonish me to be 'fair' and 'balanced' by telling the public that the elections are not constitutionally due until October or later. Everyone knows that! However, there are many things that need urgent attention. Internationally, these include the CARICOM Single Market (CSM), reparations for slavery and the tragedy of slavery and genocide in Mauritania and Darfur. The PNP governments led by Norman and Michael Manley had leading roles in international politics and the latter was the Third World's brightest spark in the 1970s.

P.J. was the effective CARICOM leader. Therefore, it is embarrassing that Jamaica, who destroyed the earlier West Indies Federation in 1961, sent no one to the current CARICOM heads of government meeting, because of our ill-timed local politics. Locally, we have to tackle education and its spin-off, crime; electricity, export earnings and the brewing scandal in the Universal Access Fund (UAF), where a board member reportedly earned $28.2 million in 19 months for service to it.

This last matter is a national disgrace because membership on public boards should be about service, not personal gain. I can think of at least one lawyer on a national board, who willingly gives free service in the nation's interest. Anyway, "leave dat till nex' time".

The Prime Minister is not P.J. and cannot have it both ways. On the one hand, she took credit in April during her budget presentation, for some of the achievements of the PNP, which were not hers, given the brief time she has been in office. On the other hand, she is now adopting the catch phrase, 'getting my own mandate'.

She needs to get one thing into her beautiful African head - whose hair does not change course. It might be her leadership, her celebration and her food and drinks; however, it is not her 'party'. Hundreds of 'comrades' who unite behind her, do so, not because they believe in her wisdom, knowledge or leadership, but because they feel that her 'grass roots,' huggy-kissy image will win the party's fifth term - not Portia's first.

Best time to announce date

Many are unconvinced that the party is as united as it should be and one wonders why neither 'Tumpa' nor the 'Fat Man' was selected as deputy prime minister. Furthermore, if she had called the election before Christmas, or even better, after the great sense of 'Jamaicanness' in the post-'emancipendence' period, the party would have secured a larger majority in Parliament.

It would have allowed her to maximise the effect of the euphoria and avoid the impact of Trafigura and other debacles. Moreover, the more time she takes between her initial ascension and ordination in March 2006 and the election, is the more time she will have to make more intemperate statements that could reveal chinks in her armour.

As it stands now, the party is slightly ahead in the popular vote. However, it is not impossible for a party to have more of the popular vote and still lose the overall election. The PNP has more 'garrison' constituencies. Therefore, heavy support among these does not necessarily translate into more seats. It should be noted that on a seat-by-seat basis, it is extremely difficult to call and the Labourites are licking their lips. Some of my University of the West Indies (UWI) colleagues, who support the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), have mapped out a national political 'ludi' board with more green than orange chips.

If the PNP loses the election, or if the small majority in Parliament reduces the party's clout, they will have none other than the supreme leader to blame. Nonetheless, I am sure the prophets have told her so.

The JLP is predicting victory, perhaps because the historians will remind us that the American Liberty Bell was rung for the first time on July 8, 1776. This bell symbolised the dawn of a new era in American politics and the beginning of the nation itself. On the same date in 1835, as the bell was rung, a major flaw turned into a second crack. More intriguingly, I bet that no one noticed that the JLP was formed on July 8, 1943, by disgruntled PNP co-founder, Alexander Bustamante.

Hmm! Maybe, she shouldn't fly the gate today.

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona.