Power 106 election news, Tuesday August 28
Written by JamaicaElections.com
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Police vote mix-up
There was confusion today as security forces turned out to vote today, in adcance of Election Day next Monday.
At the Mobile Reserve in the corporate area there was some police personnel reported that their names were not on the lists at the various polling divisions.
The polling station opened on time and long lines were observed at the start of voting.
However the voting process later progressed smoothly.
Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas is registered to cast his ballot at Mobile Reserve.
Assistant Commissioner in charge of Operations Owen Ellington who is also registered at that location cast his ballot this morning.
Meanwhile voting at the Hunts Bay and the Elleston Road police stations was reported to be smooth.
At the Hunts Bay Station which has two polling divisions, Returning Officer Jacqueline Shakes, said voting started off slowly this morning.
A CAFFE observer at the station reported that the process was incident free.
There was more activity at the Elleston Road station as several plain clothes police personnel were seen waiting to cast their ballots.
However, there were not many problems reported by Election Day workers as they also voted today.
… EOJ can’t fix it, says Walker
Director of Elections Danville Walker says the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) cannot address the problems being encountered by the police personnel.
He says the confusion may be the result of recent police transfers.
Mr. Walker says affected police personnel should seek the permission of their commanding officers to go to the parishes where their names are registered. Otherwise Mr. Walker says they will not be able to vote.
He says with in terms of operations, the Election Day activities have been progressing well.
More than 32,000 members of the security forces and Election Day workers were registered to vote today.
Government wants apology
The Government wants Opposition Leader Bruce Golding to apologise for what it says was a deliberate attempt to mislead the country.
Mr. Golding admitted yesterday that he withheld certain key information at a press conference when he stated that Police Commissioner Lucius Thomas was not in favour of the recent State of Public Emergency.
The Commissioner has since been reported as saying the statement attributed to him by Mr. Golding is not true.
According to the Commissioner he had recommended a State of Emergency in the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Thomas.
Information Minister Donald Buchanan says Mr. Golding was trying to confuse the country about the integrity of the Prime Minister when she called the State of Public Emergency.