Electoral Commission prepares for Local Gov’t election

Damion Mitchell, News Editor
The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre

The Electoral Office of Jamaica is now seeking to acquire critical items that will be needed to run the upcoming local government election.

The local government election which is due to be called by March 31 this year, is expected to cost the country just under $1 billion.

The director of elections, Orette Fisher, said already his office has received $100 million from the Finance Ministry.

Fisher said the items now being sourced include hundreds of boxes of toners, which were used in the printing of ballots for the last election.

According to him, checks are also being made to identify Election Day workers, who are available for the upcoming polls.

Fisher said the Electronic Voter Identification and Ballot Issuing System will be used in the same constituencies as the general election.

There were complaints in the December 29 poll that the system moved very slowly.

However, Fisher said his investigations showed that the system performed well.

However, he said every effort will be made to optimise the performance of the Electronic Voter Identification and Ballot Issuing System in the next election.

radio@gleanerjm.com