Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) under fire for missing names
Voters line up at Yallahs Primary during Election Day activities in Western St. Thomas, yesterday. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Tuesday | September 4, 2007
Keisha Hill, Gleaner Writer
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has come under fire for a failure to ensure, as promised, that the names of electors would not be left off the voters' list during yesterday's election proceedings in Central Manchester.
Many voters in the four electoral divisions - Knockpatrick, Mandeville, Royal Flat and Bellefield - expressed disgust that their names were left off the voters' list, even though they were enumerated and reverified.
Eric Rowe, an irate resident who turned up at the Grove Road polling station in Mandeville to cast his vote, said his name did not appear on the list at the West Indies College Preparatory School polling station, where he was registered to vote.
Failed to locate his name
According to Rowe, he was enumerated and reverified in June. In his quest to find his name, he visited three polling divisions, Grove Road being one of them, but had failed to locate his name.
Similar sentiments were expressed at the Mandeville Primary and Junior High School, which had six polling stations.
In one case, a family of four expressed their disappointment by stating that the EOJ was not organised for the election.
The family said its patriarch had died a year ago and his name was on the voters' list, while the name of his son, who is alive, was left off. Accordingly, there were persons whose names were on the EOJ's list but were not on the register held by the presiding officers. These individuals were not allowed to vote.
Basil Cameron, a political liaison officer at the Mandeville Primary and Junior High School, said more than 40 names were left off the voters' list in his division.
