By Lynford Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE FINAL results of the upcoming national parliamentary elections are likely to be ready as early as 8:30 p.m. on Election Day, said Danville Walker, the Director of Elections, yesterday.
Mr. Walker, who was a guest at The Gleaner's Editors' Forum at the newspaper's North Street offices, downtown Kingston, said the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) was prepared to conduct the best election in the country's history.
This, he noted, will be facilitated by the Election Centre which is currently being set up at Jamaica Brolier's Hope Road premises, Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew.
The Director of Elections said that one of the EOJ's goals is to have all 7,277 polling stations open on time at 7:00 a.m. on Election Day. He said that with voting scheduled to be completed by 5:00 p.m., he expects the preliminary count in the polling stations to be over by 6:15 p.m.
"By 7:00 o'clock we expect them (the ballots) to be at the counting stations and by 8:00 o'clock they would have counted the ballots and by 8:30 p.m. results should be declared," Mr. Walker said. "That's what we're shooting for this election."
To this end, the results will be fed into the Election Centre from computerised counting centres in all 60 constituencies across the country.
