With 33 seats called - there is a total of 60 up for grabs - the PNP now has a five-seat advantage.

With the race proving as hot as expected: a bar near to The Gleaner building on North Street, downtown Kingston is reportedly also showing the affects.

Red Stripe Beer, served in a red bottle and dubbed ‘PNP beer’ for its closeness to that party’s preferred orange is only available hot. Meanwhile the ‘JLP Heineken’, which is served in a green bottle, also like that party’s colour, has similarly lost its cool.

Guiness, which is served in a politically-neutral black bottle, remains cool.

And then this happened to Horace Dalley, incumbent Member of Parliament for North Clarendon since 1989 …

Candidates

Total Votes cast: 11951
Voter Turnout: 65.86 %

By now you should really be following the numbers at our online Election Centre or via its accompanying maps for Jamaica and Kingston and St. Andrew.

And no surprise here … Karl Samuda (JLP) has been returned in North Central St. Andrew:

Candidates

Total Votes cast: 9580
Voter Turnout: 58.84 %

Derrick Smith Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for the North West St. Andrew constituency has made a little history being the first candidate to be elected this election.

Mr. Smith beat Jermaine Martin of the People’s National Party (PNP) by 5786 (59.7 per cent) votes to 3906 (40.3 per cent).

A total of 9,692 votes were cast, representing a turnout of 57.69 per cent.

Omar Davies has just been returned as PNP Member of Parliament for South St. Andrew, followed by Party colleague Ronnie Thwaites in Central Kingston.

Keep following results online with our Election Centre:

Click here

With the count underway follow the results as they come in polling station by polling station.

Click here for the Election Centre.

Less than an hour before the close of voting, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate Daryl Vaz was claiming at least a 2,000 margin victory in the West Portland constituency.

Speaking with The Gleaner at about 4:30 p.m. Mr. Vaz said he declared victory in the seat from about 11 a.m. The candidate said the party’s machinery had vigorously organised electors to come out and vote

Mr. Vaz said that, from as early as 6 a.m. his young team was on the road pulling out the voters

“This is the result of 17 months of organisation which has proved fruitful,” Mr. Vaz said.

Meanwhile, voter turnout was said to be very high in the constituency, which possesses 17,963 electors. Some voters at polling stations at St. Margaret’s Bay All Age, Orange Bay Primary, and Buff Bay Primary Schools complained that they were in queue from more than an hour.

“Mi reach here from 7 a.m. and now a afta 10 a.m. an mi jus a leave,” one voter at Buff Bay Primary said.

Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) representatives said that the long wait was due to the large turn out in the morning hours.

Meanwhile, when this newspaper spoke with the PNP candidate Abe Dabdoub, at Buff Bay Primary who said: “No comment - I am busy working.”

Mr. Dabdoub, then proceeded to visit each of the 10 polling divisions at the schools, speaking with his party indoor agents and the EOJ’s representatives.

Police said there were no arrests regarding the day’s election proceeding in the constituency and that reports of road blocks in Bybrook and Mount Vernon were false.

Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for East Central St. James Edmund Bartlett said he was pleased with the work his party put in to mobilise voters for today’s general election but expressed concern about the absence of several names from the voters’ list.

While still exuding confidence of victory, Bartlett said some names that were on the original voters’ list weren’t on the list the presiding officer had today and that this could affect the results.

Also contesting this constituency are the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Donald Colomathi and independent candidate Royston Richards.

Polls are now closed at the Alpha Primary School in the Central Kingston constituency, with counting now underway.

Ronald Thwaites is expected to comfortably win the seat for the People’s National Party (PNP) over the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Charlton Collie.

There is a heavy police presence manning the counting centre with a few supporters clad in PNP orange.

With inner city communities inside the South East St. Andrew constituency suffering from an upsurge in murders during the election, some outsiders might be wondering how it is that people there summon the will to venture outside their homes on a daily basis.

But as this video, shot during Hurricane Dean demonstrates, residents from the constituency’s Vineyard Town community are made of stern stuff. Men - not forgetting the person filming - are shown walking in off the street, despite the storm blowing hard.

People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for North East Manchester, Paul Lyn, and his campaign manager, attorney-at-law Churchill Neita, were reportedly injured after missiles were thrown at them shortly after midday.

As a result, Mr. Lyn said he would be calling on the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) to make voting in sections of North East Manchester null and void.

It is alleged that Mr. Lyn was accompanied by Mr. Neita and another lawyer, Patrick Atkinson, to the polling station at the Robin Hall All Age School to investigate reports of intimidation.

Mr. Lyn and his entourage were accompanied by a contingent of soldiers and police who were dispatched from the Christiana Police station on his request.

Reports are that the missiles were hurled at Mr. Lyn and his team when they were leaving the school compound. Mr. Lyn’s car was reportedly damaged and splinters from shattered glass injured the eyes of Messrs Neita and Lyn.

Police confirmed the attack on Mr. Lyn and his team.

Early this morning, several roads leading to polling stations were blocked. However, the debris was cleared by a team of police and soldiers before voting began at 7 a.m. All 100 polling stations in the constituency were opened for voting today.

On the lighter side, half-an-hour before the slated 5 p.m. close of the polls, hundreds of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters were seen celebrating what they perceived to be a victory for their candidate, Audley Shaw.

Supervisors in the North Trelawny constituency are reporting that voter turnout could be as high as 80 percent with long lines causing tempers to fray amongst those queuing.

One man had to be escorted from the polling station after he stormed in complaining that time was running out on him. He thought he would miss his chance to vote if he did not cast his ballot by 5 p.m. However, voters cannot be denied the opportunity to vote once they reach the polling station before closing time.

The man was later seen trying to call Dennis Meadows, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for the constituency. Mr. Meadows is up against the People’s National Party’s (PNP) E.V. Patrick Harris.