PNP president P J Patterson

JAMAICANS vote today in parliamentary elections -- the 14th poll since 1944 -- for 60 seats in the House of Representatives.

Both the ruling People's National Party (PNP) and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) are fielding the full slate of 60 candidates each, while the New Jamaica Alliance -- a union of the National Democratic Movement, the Republican Party of Jamaica and the Jamaica Alliance for National Unity -- will be contesting 31 seats; the United People's Party (UPP) nine seats; and the Rastafarian party, the Imperial Ethiopian World Federation Inc Political Party (IEWFIPP) fielding seven candidates. There are also eight independents offering themselves as prospective parliamentarians.

JLP leader Edward Seaga

Both major political parties -- the PNP and the JLP -- ended their campaigning Monday with rallies in Mandeville and Kingston respectively and the party leaders spent part of yesterday meeting with their workers.

An aide to P J Patterson, the PNP president and incumbent prime minister, said he spent most of the day doing state duties at Jamaica House, where he also met with former United States president, Jimmy Carter. Carter is leading an international observer team for today's poll. "He then went to party headquarters after 5:00 pm and met with the campaign team," the PNP official said.

UPP president Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas

JLP leader Edward Seaga also met yesterday with Carter and attended a late morning press conference at the party's Belmont Road headquarters.

"He also kept in touch (by telephone) with various candidates, met with campaign officials and went into his constituency (West Kingston) twice," said Prudence Kidd-Deans, a senior aide to Seaga.

NDM/NJA president Hyacinth Bennett

Hyacinth Bennett, the president of the National Democratic Movement, told the Observer that her schedule yesterday was light, compared to the hectic campaign itinerary she kept over the previous days. Bennett is contesting the West Rural St Andrew seat.

"I spent the day making sure all things that are required are in place," said Bennett. She, too, had audience with Carter.

Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas, the UPP president, told the Observer that she spent the day doing "lots of administrative work to make sure things are in order and ready to go".

Haughton, who is seeking a mandate from voters in Central St Mary, said she also spent part of the day issuing voters' guides and met with party workers both in her constituency and at the party office.

There are just over 1.3 million electors on the voters' list, which the electoral authorities claim to be the cleanest ever. With all names on the list cross-matched with fingerprints, the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC), which manages elections locally, believes it will be difficult for bogus voting in today's poll.

Director of Elections Danville Walker, told a press conference at the Election Centre yesterday that all was in place for the poll.

"The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is in a high state of preparedness and readiness at this point and we expect that the stations will open on time at 7:00 am, and we should have a good day of polling," Walker said.

The director of elections said, however, that the EOJ was carefully monitoring certain constituencies, especially in the Corporate Area, where in past elections there has been a problem of crowd control. However, he was satisfied with security arrangements in place for the constituencies.

Walker told reporters that the political parties have settled on the polling stations for all constituencies, including two in which there were concerns up to two weeks ago -- Central St Catherine being contested by the JLP's Olivia "Babsy" Grange, the PNP's Homer White, and the NDM's Pepon Ruddock; and Eastern St Andrew where the PNP's Colin Campbell, the JLP's St Aubyn Bartlett and the NJA's Rev Al Miller are contesting.

In response to concerns by the JLP that there was a plot to disrupt the elections, Walker said: "The plot that we have is to cover the security of the boxes; we have covered the security of the workers; we have photographs on the voters' list; disruption, I think, will be treated with the full force of the law and I don't really have a fear of that going into tomorrow (today)."

The PNP held 46 seats in the last Parliament and the JLP 12, while two seats -- South East St Ann and North West St James -- were vacant, following the resignation of the PNP's Seymour Mullings who was appointed as Kingston's ambassador to Washington, and Francis Tulloch who resigned his St James seat and announced that he was quitting representational politics.

The latest Observer/Stone poll, published in the newspaper's second edition yesterday afternoon, predicted a fourth term for Patterson's PNP. According to the poll, 38.4 per cent of respondents said they would be voting for the ruling party, while 29 per cent said they would cast their ballots for the JLP.

The JLP was, however, confident yesterday that it would win today's elections. (See related story on Page 3)

The National Democratic Movement/New Jamaica Alliance and the United People's Party, according to Stone, each had the backing of one-tenth or one per cent of voters.

The poll also showed that 26 per cent said either they will not vote today or had not yet made up their minds if they would vote, while 2.5 per cent would not declare for which party they would vote and 3.8 per cent said they did not know which party they would vote for.

Meanwhile, the police yesterday warned electors that it was an offence under the Representation of the People Act to:

* deface or destroy any ballot paper or the official mark on the ballot paper;

* without due authority supply a ballot paper to any person;

* remove ballot papers from the polling station; and

* directly or indirectly induce any voter to display his ballot paper after it was marked.

Ballots for today's polls come shrink-wrapped, are unique to each station and cannot be used at stations for which they were not intended.

In addition, the police said only vehicles that have electoral placards exhibited on them can be used to transport electors, and these can only be used in designated constituencies.

The almost 20,000 election workers last Friday, for the first time, cast their votes along with members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the Jamaica Defence Force because of legislation passed in Parliament this year, allowing them to be free for full election day duties.

Political Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair yesterday urged Jamaicans to go out and vote and to make the election free and fair and free from fear.

"Voting is an act of conscience and political choice, to be exercised in a secret ballot without fear. And it is the responsibility of every person to allow this to happen, and to report any election malpractice or threats," said Blair.

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