DIRECTOR of Elections Orette Fisher says he is prepared to investigate any claims of individuals being unable to vote in yesterday’s police, military, election day workers’ polling exercise after reports of irregularities surfaced.

Speaking with the Observer after the polls closed at 4:00 pm, the director of elections said voting, which began at 8:00 am, had “continued in a peaceful and orderly manner throughout”. He, however, said reports of persons not being able to vote had been received by electoral officials via a third party.

“We got a few reports, primarily through the media, of persons who said their names did not appear where they expected it to be. I am prepared to investigate any such claims if persons bring them to our attention,” he told the Observer.

“However if any police, election day worker or military person did not see their name on the list today, but it appears on the civil list, they will be able to vote on December 29th,” Fisher said.

He, however, emphasised that persons whose names were on the lists that were used in the yesterday’s exercise but who had not voted would not be granted the same privilege.

“But apart from those, I am inviting those persons who say that their names were left off every list totally to report it to me because I am saying everybody who is on the official list would be on one of the four lists, either the police, military, election or civil list because the official list was just broken into four and we used three today and the final one will be used on December 29th,” Fisher said.

The director of elections said no reports had been made to the Election Centre either. The Election Centre operates between nomination and election days as the official space where activities are co-ordinated, problems resolved and information issued. It comprises representatives of the major political parties, the security forces, the director of elections, the political ombudsman, local and international observers and a representative of the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches.

The Representation of the People Act makes special provisions for the military, police personnel and election day workers to vote three clear days before election day so as to ensure that they are available for duty on election day.

Some 35,705 individuals, including police and military personnel and election day workers, were scheduled to cast their votes yesterday ahead of the December 29 general election poll.

The number would have included some 25,396 election day workers who voted in 199 locations across the island, 8,211 police personnel voting in 21 locations and 2,098 military personnel voting at five locations.

Commenting on a complaint relayed to the Observer by one member of the security forces who said that upon turning up to vote he was told that he had already voted, the director of elections said the claim was a strange one.

“We have not heard of that, and I am pretty sure with all the procedures we have in place today, that would be pretty nigh impossible, but again I would prefer to be told the polling station and the location in which it happened so I can properly investigate before I would be able to comment on it. But I have had no such report of that happening,” he said.

“They need to give us the information so that we can properly investigate and comment because I would ask the supervisor and the presiding officer for that location to explain what happened,” he added.

In the meantime, he said the Jamaica Defence Force Up Park Camp headquarters in St Andrew where some members of the military cast their votes was the only location from which reports had come of the exercise going beyond the established 4:00 pm cut-off time.

However, he pointed out that “the law provides that once you are in line at the time the polling station closes you are allowed to vote, and I gather there were persons in the line at 4:00 pm, and so those persons were allowed to vote”.

Earlier yesterday, People’s National Party candidate for St Andrew South East Julian Robinson was at Up Park Camp, which sits in that constituency.

“So far everything is good. There have been no issues and I am not expecting that there will be,” Robinson told the Observer.

Captain Basil Jarrett, civil military co-operation and media affairs officer for the JDF, also said the exercise went without a hitch.

“The majority of officers are based here, but we also have some of the recruits we have training in Newcastle, we brought them down so they can also exercise their right, and others are voting in Moneague, Manchester and so on, rather than have everyone coming here to Up Park Camp,” said Jarrett.

“We have arranged for them to get the process out of the way and get back to their regular duties as soon as possible because as you can imagine we are very busy gearing up for the elections coming up on the 29th. Things have been going smoothly; it’s the JDF, we will be in and out in no time,” he added.

In Central Kingston at the EOJ office on Duke Street where election day workers were casting their votes, the report was the same. The assistant returning officer at that location who opted not to be named said “everything has been going smoothly so far”.

At Mobile Reserve’s Harman Barracks headquarters off Camp Road in the Corporate Area, voting was also smooth.

“So far, so good. The voting has been peaceful and orderly as would be expected from the security forces,” Fisher said when the Observer saw him on what was his second visit of several planned to polling stations for the day.

Yesterday, Jamaica Labour Party representative on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica and the Election Centre Senator Tom Tavares Finson said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the day.

“A good indication of how well the system was prepared is the rate at which the polling stations opened, and all the polling stations opened promptly at 8:00 am except for two in St Ann which opened at 8:10 because of some bureaucratic issue, but they were cleared up quickly by then,” he told the Observer.

Citizens’ Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) representative with the Election Centre Dr John Maxwell was also pleased with the process.

“Everything seems to be running smoothly because obviously there are few numbers in very controlled environments so we would hardly expect anything otherwise,” Maxwell said.