ST. ANN:
ELECTION DAY activities in North East and South East St. Ann, were affected by rain for most of the morning on Wednesday. The light to moderate and at times heavy showers began from early in the morning.
Despite the showers most polling stations were able to open on time, except for those at the Exchange Primary School and Breadnut Hill Primary in North East St. Ann which electoral workers arrived late.
Voting was slow most of the day and close to end of the day most polling divisions were reporting a turn out of 60 per cent on average. There were several reports of intimidation from supporters from both the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People's National Party (PNP). At one stage, electoral officials had to call in the police to maintain the peace at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St. Ann's Bay, after verbal clash between JLP and PNP supporters appeared to be getting out of control.
In many cases, the police were unable to control the crowd of JLP and PNP supporters gathered outside some polling stations and the 100 metres distance from those premises could not be enforced by the lawmen.
Following the early rush on the polling stations, there was little activity at many of these stations throughout most of the afternoon in North East St. Ann. Candidates representing the New Jamaica Alliance (NJA) and the United People Party (UPP) were not seen throughout the day by The Gleaner and efforts to contact them were unsuccessful.
PNP candidates for North East St. Ann, Carol Jackson, was one of the first persons to cast their ballots at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St. Ann's Bay at 7:00 a.m. There was a cluster of six polling divisions at that location. Mrs. Jackson told The Gleaner that she made sure her own ballot was in place, so she could have the remainder of the time to deal with other matters relating to the election.
Later, at approximately 10:00 a.m., JLP candidate Shahine Robinson, walked into the Ocho Rios Primary School where she cast her ballot at Polling Division 23, at that time only 60 out of the 202 electors on that list had already cast their ballots.
Braving the rainfall, Robin-son said the showers were blessings for a JLP victory. Over in South West St. Ann, the voting was very brisk during the morning session, despite the poor weather condition.
Although things appeared to be very calm, at most polling stations visited, there were repeated reports of threats and intimidation of voters by supporters of both the JLP and the PNP.
JLP candidate, Ernest Smith told The Gleaner that PNP activist had invaded a number of polling stations in known JLP strongholds, threatening JLP supporters. He said later in the afternoon that group was joined by another group of PNP activist from North West St. Ann and that this was part of efforts by his opponent to prevent a JLP victory.
Smith said he made several reports to the police throughout the day and this was confirmed by a senior police officer. But when contacted, PNP candidate Glenville Shaw said things had gone through very smoothly for him and that he did not encountered any problems. Responding to charges made by Mr. Smith, Shaw said that Smith's report were false and "it is two of his supporters going around threatening his supporters".
While many were busy with election day activities, some members of the business community in Ocho Rios, along with taxi operators were busily cashing in on business from the cruise ship, Voyager of the Seas, which was in port with some 3,000 visitors. The visitors all went about their business without hinderance.
