MONTEGO BAY, St James – Officials said yesterday’s voting by members of the security forces and electoral workers in the Western parishes which went smoothly, recorded a relatively high voter turnout.

Although it was not clear last night how many had actually voted, there were suggestions that the turnout was well over 70 per cent.

“The voting has gone fairly smoothly and the turnout high,” Ivanhoe Gordon, the returning officer for North Trelawny, told the Observer last night.

But checks conducted by the Observer in the constituency revealed that the turnout was roughly 82 per cent.

At the Duncans All Age School where 90 electoral workers were registered to vote, 81 cast their ballots, while in Clarks Town, 40 of the 44 registered voters exercised their franchise.

In the case of the police, 143 of the 169 registered in the parish of Trelawny voted at the Falmouth Police Station.

The turnout was similar at other venues across the region.

In Westmoreland 199 of the 254 policemen on the voters list cast their ballots.

The voter turnout was said to be 75 per cent in the constituencies of Western and Eastern Hanover.

Elsewhere, the turnout in Manchester and St Elizabeth were also fairly high according to reports from the Black River Police Station. There were, however, reports that some members of the police force and election day workers were unable to find their names on the voters’ list.