In the wake of the problems experienced as security personnel went out to vote, the two main opposition parties yesterday questioned the preparedness of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) for Thursday's general election and predicted that voters will face further problems then.

Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Edward Seaga yesterday described the exercise as an abysmal failure marked with ineptitude, while Bruce Golding, president of the National Democratic Movement (NDM), called on Director of Elections Danville Walker to take steps to correct the discrepancies in the lists and to allow the police officers who were deprived from voting to do so tomorrow.

Mr. Seaga, in a news release, said, "the Electoral Office continues to bounce from one crisis to another, which is reflective of the administrative bungling which has now become characteristic of the Electoral Office of Jamaica". He said only 7,000 members of the security forces were able to vote.

Mr. Seaga said some of the problems with yesterday's poll included the absence of names from the list, some black books to help identify voters not being delivered, and an inadequate supply of ballots.

Mr. Golding said yesterday's exercise was "a manifestation of the chaos which will be inevitable on Thursday because of faulty preparation by the Electoral Office".

President of the Police Federation Michael James, who also spoke about the problems yesterday said, "We have seen about 20 (persons who had enumeration certificates but whose names were not on the list) among those who were to vote at 79 East Street in Kingston". He said there were another "five or six" persons who names were scheduled to vote at the East Street polling station, but whose names were located on the civilian list in different constituencies.

The police and soldiers cast their ballots at polling stations - about five of which were in the Corporate Area and the others set up in main police stations islandwide.