POLITICAL Ombudsman Bishop Herro Blair says his office will not prevent radio and television stations from airing political ads up to midnight on Sunday, but said there should be absolutely no campaigning on Monday, September 3, the day of the general elections.

“.Absolutely no ads on Monday,” the political ombudsman said.

Addressing the media prior to a briefing held by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) and the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) at the Election Centre on Dominica Drive in Kingston yesterday, Blair said the media had the option to refrain from airing political ads on the day before the polls if it was against their own ethical standards, but said there was nothing in the law to prevent media houses from doing so.

“There is nothing in law to prevent the media houses from doing this. They might want to do this from their own ethical standpoint but my office will not prevent them up until midnight Sunday,” said Blair.

At the same time, chairman of the ECJ, Professor Errol Morrison, said under the law all “meetings, marches, motorcades and rallies” were restricted 24 hours before the election.

Said Miller: “Anything that involves the aggregation of people and the movement of that aggregation, those are specifically banned. We do not see in the law any prohibition of matters run on radio or television but there can be no meetings, marches, motorcades, rallies on September 2.

“There is a 24-hour ban. All public campaigning in terms of meetings, marches, motorcades, rallies and so on must end on Saturday, September 1,” Miller said.

And commenting on Tuesday’s voting by election day workers and the security forces, ahead of Monday’s general elections, Miller said it was a good day, supporting Tuesday night’s assessment by the director of elections, Danville Walker.

Walker said Tuesday night that the just over 70 per cent turnout Tuesday could set the pace for Monday’s vote.

The ECJ said of the 33,288 electors in the three categories who could have voted Tuesday, 24,030 cast their ballots – a 72.2 per cent turnout.

In terms of damage sustained to polling stations as a result of Hurricane Dean which battered the island on August 19, the ECJ said 246 or less than five per cent of its 6,232 polling stations suffered damage, specifically those in South Manchester, St Elizabeth, Portland and St Thomas.

It said for the 154 of the 246 which suffered major damage new measures were being put in place, including the relocation to nearby premises for eight of the stations.

The ECJ said, however, that “by Monday all the locations will be operative in one way or the other”.