Norris R. McDonald | The CIA and Jamaica’s vote-buying ‘bag a money’ politricks!’

Jamaica’s political culture of vote-buying and vote-selling did not emerge overnight. While patronage politics has long been part of the island’s political tradition, the commercialisation of ‘bag a money ‘ politics accelerated during the ideological battles of the 1970s and early 1980s. Declassified presidential documents from the Jimmy Carter administration suggest that American interference in Jamaican politics helped transform the scale of political financing, leaving “a bitta legacy” that continues to shape elections today.