Hurricane damage to a number of buildings, including schools, that will be used as polling stations will not compromise the integrity of the September 3 general elections, Director of Elections Danville Walker assured yesterday.

“When we proposed the September 3 date, we took advice from the Jamaica Public Service Company that light could be restored within seven to 10 days in the Corporate Area,” Walker told the Sunday Observer.

“This is against the background that the constituencies in which the fingerprint-generated ballots would be used were in the Corporate Area,” he added. “So even without electricity in the rural areas, the elections would not be affected.”

Jamaica was set to vote for a new government on August 27 when category four Hurricane Dean sideswiped the eastern and southern shores of the island last Sunday, killing three people and leaving the country without electricity and water.

The storm also damaged buildings and property and led the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to last Monday recommend a postponement of the elections to September 3.

But the ECJ’s recommendation apparently was not fully supported by the Government, as some members of the Cabinet were reported to favour a longer delay.

The indecision within the administraton triggered public suspicion and opposition, with claims emerging that the Government was seeking to use hurricane relief to attract votes.

Eventually on Friday, the last working day before the original election day, Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall, on the advice of Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, issued a proclamation postponing the polls from August 27 to September 3.

The security forces and election day workers will now cast their ballots on Tuesday, August 28.

Yesterday, Walker said the Electoral Office of Jamaica’s returning officers in the island’s 60 constituencies have kept the office abreast of the situation on the ground.

“My returning officers all know what they are supposed to do,” he said. “They have been checking all the locations earmarked for polling stations and they have been preparing reports. There are still some areas that they may not be able to get to because of the damage, but that will not affect the ability to put on the elections.”

He said there were reports that several schools which will be used as polling stations had lost their roofs. However, in those cases, he said, tarpaulins will be used for the elections.

“Our electoral system in Jamaica is fairly rudimentary,” said Walker. “It is what they call books and pencil system. All you need is a tilly (bottle) lamp to work with, and if you have daylight hours. Between the closing [of the polls] at 5:00 pm and getting to the counting centres, in most instances that will not take two hours. So the whole process from the beginning with voting, closing of the polls and getting to the counting centres can still be done almost in daylight hours.”

Meanwhile, prior to the arrival of the hurricane, Walker said there was a feverish rush to collect more than 80,000 identification cards still outstanding at constituency offices.

“People have been picking them up,” he said. “Our average now is about 1,000 a week, and has stepped up since the beginning of the year, but especially since Nomination Day.”

The cards, widely accepted as bona fide national identification for Jamaicans, and which bear electoral data on eligible voters, are crucial to participation in the elections. However, Walker reiterated that other legitimate forms of identification will be acccepted at polling stations.