THE Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) said the training of election day recruits will begin on Monday, March 11.

Public information officer at the EOJ, Neville Graham, told the Jamaica Information Service that 80 per cent of the number of workers needed have so far been recruited.

“Right now we have received 13,541 applications so far, and we feel pretty confident that we’ll hit our 17,000 mark. The absolute figure that we need is about 18,570 but we will be comfortable with anything in that region as in that figure is contained a 20 per cent reserve,” he said.

Graham said the training schedule, which was being formulated for the new recruits, would comprise a minimum of three sessions where they would be introduced to modern day audio-visual material, such as coloured manuals, mounting boards and posters to assist in the training.

Graham said there were plans to develop a video bank where the training exercises would be reduced to a 15-20 minute video, which the participant could use to review what training took place.

He said too that there would be three sessions of two-hour duration. “This to be followed by a refresher course as soon as an election date is announced. At that time, the EOJ will organise another two or three sessions.”

Persons are being recruited as polling clerks, presiding officers and supervisors to staff the more than 6,500 polling stations islandwide.

General elections are due by yearend.