Electoral Office to begin using GPS technology
New system to accurately identify constituency boundaries |
BALFORD HENRY, Observer writer
Thursday, May 20, 2004
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THE Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will be positioned this year to better redefine constituency boundaries, Minister of National Security Dr Peter Phillips told the House of Representatives yesterday.
Phillips, who also has responsibility for electoral matters, told the House that the EOJ will be establishing a department and acquire the necessary computer hardware and software, in the first half of this calendar year, that will enable it to use the latest Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.
The GPS system, which is linked to 24 satellites orbiting at about 11,000 nautical miles above the earth, will assist the EOJ in easily and accurately identifying constituencies and polling division boundaries.
Phillips also announced that a national residence re-verification will commence in October and last until November, 2005.
A re-verification, he said, is necessary because the last one was done in 1997 and since then many persons have died or moved and available information suggests that about 20 per cent of the electorate may have changed address since.
The minister said that at the end of the programme "the EOJ will have the empirical data necessary to enable a more accurate and equitable distribution of electors, when the time comes for re-definition of constituency boundaries".
Dr Phillips also said that the EOJ was upgrading its technology for electronic voter identification by fingerprints.
He said that the objective of the upgrade was to acquire equipment and licences necessary to enable the EOJ, by September, to use the system to conduct any by-election in any constituency in Jamaica, and ultimately to be used in future national elections.
He also repeated the government's recent announcement that it is committed to have the necessary legislation enacted and entrenched, during the course of the calendar year, to move the EAC to the status of an independent commission responsible for the registration of electors, maintaining the integrity of elections and the delineation of national constituency boundaries.
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