PARLIAMENT on Tuesday amended the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation Act, the Representation of the People Act and the Parish Councils Act, as part of efforts to stamp out fraudulent practices in local government and general elections.

Under the amended bills, physically incapacitated voters will have the same safeguards with respect to the secrecy of the vote as now applies to blind voters. The amendments also increase the average number of electors in each polling division from 300 to 400, and requires that a political party must gain at least five per cent of the seats in the House of Representatives to be able to appoint election scrutineers at public expense.

Dr Peter Phillips, the leader of government business and minister of national security, who piloted the bills, said the adjustments were in keeping with recommendations made by the then Electoral Advisory Committee in April of 2006 calling for several reforms before any future elections to improve the efficiency and security of the taking of the polls.

“We considered the report made by the committee, now the commission, and we approved it without any alteration. The Bills reflect the recommended changes,” Phillips told the House.

However, Phillips said the amendment to prohibit open voting and making it an offence for an elector to intentionally display his ballot paper so as to make known the person he will be voting for or against was probably the most important of the proposed amendments.

“The mischief this amendment seeks to remedy is twofold; it seeks to prevent the intimidation of potential voters who may be imposed upon to openly display their ballot in circumstances where failure to do so may result in violence being perpetrated against that voter; and to prevent fraud and bribery where a person’s vote will be sold and monies paid over on the condition that a ballot is displayed as confirmation that a voter has voted in a particular manner,” Phillips said.

According to the House leader, open voting “compromises the basic provisions of the constitution where a person is entitled to vote and to cast their ballot in secret and to freely elect the candidate of their choice”.

He added: “This pattern that has developed in some places linked to intimidation, sometimes to fraud, constitutes a blemish on our electoral system.”

Phillips further called on politicians to conduct the debate on the electoral process in a manner that did not “incite violence”. He said while all members might have acted contrary to this in the past, it was hoped that a change will be seen in the future.

Opposition MP Karl Samuda, in supporting the amended bills, said every effort must be made to guard against electoral fraud.

“For those who wish to defraud the people of Jamaica by denying them their ability to make a choice as to who sits in this parliament for those who wish to defraud the system they have now shifted their emphasis,” said Samuda, an Opposition member of the Electoral Commission.

According to Samuda, such persons have already began to strategise on how to keep legitimate voters from being able to go to polling stations to cast their votes.

“At the community level in certain areas they have already begun to lay the strategy for intimidating voters so that they are so afraid that they will stay home and not go to the polls. what is undeniable is that the system can be severely compromised if we do not obtain from the security forces the full co-operation to ensure that those who try to defraud the system have imposed on them the full measure of the law,” Samuda warned.

Samuda, who is the general secretary for the Jamaica Labour Party, said the law must be allowed to take its course where there was any indiscretion.

“If they break the electoral law they must be punished and where it requires that they be incarcerated as a result that must be done regardless of who is breaking the law, whether it is a supporter or a candidate,” Samuda said. He told the House that already steps were being taken to ensure that wherever such plans are suspected “the appropriate measures will be put in place to offer the kind of protection under the law that will safeguard the rights of every elector”.

He also said the use of cellphones will not be permitted in polling stations across the country.

“Those who wish to defraud and thwart the will of the people have come up with a new strategy whereby the use of technology has been introduced into the process of fraud via the cellular phone; to replace the open vote but the use of the cellphone will not be permitted inside a polling station anywhere in this country; whilst it is a difficult and challenging thing to monitor entirely, anyone found using a cellular phone inside the polling station in the next election will not be allowed to remain,” Samuda said.

“That practice is not going to be allowed. I am satisfied as a member of the commission that the level of credibility and commitment to the protection of the electoral process rests in very sound hands at the electoral office of Jamaica. I am satisfied that everything that can be done is being done to ensure that the people of Jamaica get the government they wish via the ballot,” said Samuda.

In the meantime, Samuda said the minimum penalty of $20,000 for an elector who intentionally displays his ballot paper should be increased to at least $50,000.

At present, such a person would be liable to a fine of not less than $20,000 but no more than $80,000; imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not less than three years but no more than five years or both fine and imprisonment.