Citizens action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) expects to have more than 2,000 trained volunteers by this week. When launched in September, the organisation said it would recruit a minimum of 5,000 volunteers but expected to attract 16,000.

CAFFE chairman, Dr. Alfred Sangster, said about 1,400 applications had been processed by CAFFE's staff and several hundred more are awaiting attention. He added that the organisation is hoping to have a team of about 4,000 volunteers to serve in the December 18 general elections. These volunteers will receive certificates from the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ).

"The certificates will be stamped by the EOJ and the volunteers will also get bibs to wear on election day which will identify them as CAFFE volunteers," he said.

Additionally, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) recently announced that it would be lending its assistance to CAFFE and some of their executive members had signed up as CAFFE volunteers.

Launched in Kingston in September, CAFFE struggled in its initial efforts to attract volunteers. However, when the recruitment drive was expanded to include the rural parishes the number of persons registering for training began to increase.

According to a news release from CAFFE, during a recent workshop, CAFFE's Westmore-land Parish Committee trained more than 100 persons to act as observers. The situation was similar in Portmore, where an additional workshop is being planned after an enthusiastic response was received from more than 100 volunteers who attended a training session held in that area earlier this week.

CAFFE is being assisted by Mike Marshall, a representative from the National Democratic Institute. Mr. Marshall will be conducting training sessions across the island until Election Day.

"In 90 days we haven't done badly," Dr. Sangster told The Gleaner. "People now see that we're a serious organisation. We have been accepted by the media and all three political parties. They now take us seriously," he said.