PNP candidate takes issue with how ballots are folded
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — As he cast his vote, People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for the Little London Division in Westmoreland, Oliver Reid on Monday pointed to what he said was an inaccuracy in how the ballot was being folded by the polling clerk and indoor agent.
Reid took the ballot and demonstrated to them how it should be done, as he was concerned that their approach meant his vote was visible.
“Folding that ballot was not the proper way. Because they sit at that desk, the presiding officer and the polling clerk; if that’s how they do all the other ballots they can tell you all who vote JLP and all who vote PNP,” Reid asserted.
He said apart from that issue, everything else went smoothly.
Reid, who is going up against turncoat Jamaica Labour Party candidate Ian Myles, also spoke of his health. He was hospitalised 24 hours prior to nomination day but on Monday stressed that he is in good health and had merely over-exerted himself as he canvassed for the coveted seat.
In the 2016 local government election Myles won with 1,127 votes against the JLP’s Dixieth Palmer’s 945 votes.
This is one of the seats to watch as Reid was Myles’s former campaign manager who helped him to victory, but now the PNP’s votes will be split between these combatants.
-Kimberley Peddie