ST JAMES, Jamaica — Richard Vernon, former deputy mayor in the St James Municipal Corporation and candidate for the Montego Bay South Division is expecting a higher voter turnout on Monday.

Despite the low turnout over the years, he said indicators already show that there might be a change for this iteration of the local government elections.

“In my division on the special day for security personnel and election day workers, it was about 50 per cent and that gives some inclination where things might go today,” he told Observer Online.

His comments came after he cast his ballot at the Riverside Open Bible Church about 8:15am Monday. This was in the Springmount division of the St James East Central constituency.

He is expecting to see a reflection of this change today.

“We usually see voter turnout for local government elections anywhere from 25 to 35 per cent. I’m thinking about 40 per cent this time around,” he predicted.

He attributes this to a number of reasons to include that there are more people who would be interested in voting.

“I’m anticipating higher turnout amongst the youth population because they would have been drawn to the forefront of the discussions recently,” he explained.

He said that the youth have gotten more involved and based on their social media discourse, it shows that more of them will be out.

Further to that he said some people didn’t know they had an option on local government.

“A lot of persons didn’t know they could vote in local government and they are participating in the process now,” he stated.