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Anxious voters crowd a polling station during a by-election in 2005 in West Kingston.Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
Marie (not her real name) has worked in two general elections as a presiding officer - once in a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) garrison and the other in a People's National Party (PNP) stronghold.
Today, she tells the story of her first experience working as a presiding officer in one tough Corporate Area community.
"It was the 1997 General Election. I was the presiding officer and I was working where they had a cluster - a room with two polling divisions. From the polling station opened in the morning, there was a big rush. Everybody was gathering and rushing, but when they came to my table I told them, 'I don't need any crowd, step back. If you want to vote you are going to line up out there and come in and vote,'" she told The Sunday Gleaner.
As it related to the topical issue of open voting, Marie said it was one of the many voting irregu-larities she witnessed.
"I saw it all. The people them just do them thing and don't care. They tried to rough me, but I just put the ballot box on the chair and sat on it and say who can get a ballot paper this morning come tek it ... They stepped back and I issued ballots one by one and it went smoothly," Marie related.
Hanky-panky behaviour
However, it was not all hunky-dory in that polling division.
"Over the other table, there was a crowd, open voting and everything," Marie recalled.
At her table, she said, "Some people were coming trying to vote in people's name, and I told them get out of here and don't let me get mad."
Hanky-panky was also going on in a nearby polling division.
"That polling (division) in front of mi, they did some things that day, my God!" Marie exclaims, "People voted in other people's name, they voted openly ... I am not even sure if they didn't finish the ballot paper them and most of the people who were to come and vote did not vote. Dem vote in the people dem name ... Mi deh deh and see people come in and she (the presiding officer) tek up the book and then lock it up back, like a pretence thing, and she give them ballot and they just mark it in front of her. They didn't even dip their fingers. It was just blatant."
But, it is not just open voting that this one-time presiding officer has seen. Having worked as an indoor agent before, experience has taught Marie much about intimidatory tactics inside polling stations.
"Eye contact is powerful. It can intimidate you. I have seen where people come into the polling station to vote and because of the (indoor) agents, they leave ... Just the way in which the agent look at you, you may either vote one wayor you leave and not vote ... some people intentionally spoil the ballot," she relates.
According to her, "If they cut out the (indoor) agents, the open voting would cut out because they (voters) would not have anybody to defend them inside the polling stations."
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com
Who may be present inside the polling station
According the Representation of the People Act, Section 41 and its subsections:
In addition to the presiding officer and the poll clerk, the candidates, and one agent for each candidate in each polling station, and, in the absence of agents, one elector to represent each candidate on the request of such elector and such other persons (hereinafter referred to as observers) to observe the election process therein, and no others, shall be permitted to remain in the polling station during the time the poll remains open ... Provided that no candidate and his agent shall be in the same polling station at the same time for more than five consecutive minutes. The agent of each candidate, and, in the absence of an agent, any elector representing any candidate, on being admitted to the polling station, shall take an oath in the form set out in the Second Schedule to keep secret the name of the candidate for whom any of the voters has marked his ballot paper in his presence. Agents of candidates or electors representing candidates may, with the permission of the presiding officer, absent themselves from and return to the polling station at any time before one hour previous to the close of the poll. The chief electoral officer may, acting on the advice of the committee and subject to subsection 6, permit observers to enter any polling location, for the purpose of observing any procedure and the voting process carried out at that polling location and the counting of votes after the poll has closed at such polling location. The observers shall, in each polling location, act in accordance with the terms and conditions as are agreed to with the chief electoral officer and shall be subject to such directions as a presiding officer at that polling location may give. No more than four observers shall be permitted to remain in any polling location at any one time where polling is being carried out.
