THE ELECTORAL Office of Jamaica (EOJ) yesterday suggested that persons associated with the major political parties are attempting to mass-register under-age individuals for the national voters' list.
Neville Graham, public relations officer for the EOJ, told The Gleaner the matter has been discussed with representatives of both the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who sit on the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC). However, he declined to comment on nature of the discussions at the EAC.
Attempts to get a comment from Maxine Henry-Wilson, the PNP's representative on the EAC and Abe Dabdoub, who represents the JLP on the committee, were unsuccessful up to press time yesterday.
"We have noticed a trend," said Mr. Graham, pointing to the discovery of a number of juveniles who have tried to get on the voters' list over the past six months. He said 17,000 persons have been added to the list since last October but refused to say how many had been rejected because they were under-age.
In a release yesterday, Director of Elections Danville Walker war-ned perpetrators to "desist now or suffer the consequences". According to the EOJ, investigations are taking place with a view to making the findings public.
Mr. Graham added that the EOJ would not back away from bringing persons before the law, nor would it shy away from embarrassing those involved in the practice. He said the EOJ's internal investigators are continuing to probe the issue but noted that the police could be brought in at a later stage.
