Power 106 FM election news, Monday July 23
Written by JamaicaElections.com
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P.J. backs Bunting
Former People’s National Party (PNP) President P.J. Patterson will be seeking to shore-up support for Central Manchester candidate Peter Bunting in the constituency, this evening.
Mr. Patterson is slated to address a meeting involving Mr. Bunting and his party workers at the Manchester High School starting at 6pm.
Mr. Bunting – a former banker – will be challenging the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Sally Porteous in the August 27 election.
In the 2002 general election, sitting MP John Junor polled 8,262 votes to beat the JLP’s Norman Horne who received 7,180 votes.
Mr. Horne who has since joined the PNP is now running against the JLP’s Franklyn Witter for South East St. Elizabeth.
The PNP is to continue its series of parish rallies this week. Tomorrow it will head to Port Maria, St. Mary and on Wednesday to Christiana, Manchester.
A rally has also been scheduled for Lucea, Hanover on Thursday before another on Friday in Black River, St. Elizabeth.
EOJ cuts polling divisions
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has reduced the number of polling divisions in some constituencies ahead of the next general election.
Director of Elections Danville Walker says since the 1993 general election some constituencies had grown beyond the number of electors stipulated by the EOJ for each polling division.
Currently each polling division is required to have at least 400 electors.
Polling divisions will be combined in instances where they have less than the required number of electors. The move to combine polling divisions is also part of the effort to prevent voting irregularities in some inner city communities.
Currently there are 6,380 polling stations in 2,318 locations across the island.
Just over 1.3 million electors are expected to cast their ballots in the August 27 general election.
Samuda calls for peaceful election
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) General Secretary Karl Samuda is stressing the need for political candidates to maintain a violence free election.
Mr. Samuda’s statement follows several reported violent incidents in some constituencies.
According to Mr. Samuda the leadership of the political parties need to emphasize positive messages during the current election campaign.
Candidates from the two major parties have been having meetings with Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair in an effort to stem political tension in some constituencies.
The meetings follow an earlier one held with PNP President Portia Simpson-Miller and JLP Leader Bruce Golding.
Following that meeting the leaders warned that disciplinary action would be taken against any candidate who breached the Political Code of Conduct on the political platform.