First-time voters breaking generational curses

She had been waiting since childhood, and yesterday on election day in Franklin Town, Kingston, 20-year-old university student Ashley Mair finally slipped her finger into the ink and cast her first ballot.

"Mi been wah vote from me a pickney," she said. Mair said that voting, for her, was never optional, but a responsibility.

"Why not vote? That's the real question. If I have the ability to change anything even with just one vote, why not use my rights?" she asked.

The polling station at the Franklin Town Primary School buzzed with older, dyed-in-the-wool voters, but Mair stood out among the handful who trickled in eagerly. She said she ignored the fanfare of the campaign and relied on the leadership debate to guide her decision.

"It was the debate that decided it for me, seeing them hold each other accountable," she told THE STAR.

Her friend, 21-year-old Davia Lawrence, also voted for the first time. For her, the act was not just civic duty, but rebellion, against her household's political silence.

"My parents are not so political, but for me I'm doing it for change, both in the household and the country," she said. "Mi ready fi that because me a the first! A lot of people out there breaking generational curses and I am one of them."

Lawrence, the first in her family to attend university, said education reform was at the heart of her choice.

"Whole heap a pickney cya read or write and we still comfortable. The teaching curriculum now is not working and we're so laid-back?" she argued.

Mair's frustrations cut in a different direction. She said too many Jamaicans celebrate leaders for delivering the bare minimum.

"We as a country do not keep the country accountable. I see people rejoice over getting light and I'm like, 'But we supposed to have light in these times,'" she said.

She also questioned the government's priorities, arguing that teachers and civil servants should be among the most secure and respected workers.

"Public service jobs ought to be the most stable and rewarding careers, yet we treat them like the opposite," she said.

Mair's mother, who looked on with pride, said she was encouraged to see her daughter stepping forward.

"I think young people are exercising their rights. They are more aware and up to the time. But we need to go back to our history and see what should have been, and what it is not. Do your research before yuh jump up and seh you diehearted, because diehearted don't work," she said.