EOJ recruiting 20,000 election day workers
THE Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has started recruitment and training of the 20,000 workers it will need to man polling stations islandwide during the next general elections, even as it raises the bar to attract more people with specialist skills.
Among the workers being sought are persons qualified to operate a new electronic voter system, known as an Electronic Voter Identification Ballot Identification System (EVIBIS).
In addition to the polling clerks and presiding officers being sought, the EOJ has started the recruitment process for some 10,000 men and women who will be trained to work as security assistants, formerly known as ‘one-day policemen’. However, although they are being recruited by the EOJ, they will be assigned and supervised by the police on election day.
Orette Fisher, assistant director of administration, told the Observer that the EOJ would also be recruiting a number of persons to act as reserves in the event persons do not show up for work on election day.
“The response has been good because we have been getting a lot of applications, but we still need to have more persons applying so we can have enough persons,” he said.
Persons who are selected to work at polling stations will be paid for the day, as well as given a stipend for the time spent in training and meal allowances. The money will, however, not be paid until after election day.
But while the fear factor may be real for persons at polling stations, Fisher noted that there would be adequate security in place to ensure the safety of all workers.
“In the history of elections, there has not been any incident of persons being attacked and killed while working at polling stations,” he said, adding that these locations would also be manned by members of the security forces.
Fisher urged interested persons to attend the training sessions and to take them seriously and not wait until closer to the day of election. “We need to recruit persons early and start the training process so we are asking interested persons not to wait until just before the election,” he said.
He explained that the training sessions, which have already started, had been scheduled outside of the regular work week to accommodate working persons.