SAVE for storm surges along the coastline brought on by Hurricane Felix and a bit of chaos outside the polling station at the Springfield Community Centre (SCC) in Morant Bay, it was mostly quiet on the eastern front in St Thomas on Monday – election day.

Both St Thomas West incumbent Member of Parliament James Robertson, of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), and the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Rosemarie Shaw were on hand at the roofless SCC building. There, under blazing sun, extremely agitated supporters of both parties, waiting their turn to go inside to cast their ballots, verbally expressed their annoyance at the slow voting process created by the fact that five polling divisions were crammed into the tiny space.

“It’s crazy!” Robertson told the Observer.

“And you see how many of the PNP are pushing to get in?” he asked.

Police sergeant Sydney Gordon, who was standing guard at the entrance, told the Observer that because of the size of the building, only one person – per polling division – was being allowed inside at a time, until a PD became free. Only then will the PD’s number be called and another voter allowed to enter the cramped space.

“It’s uncontrollable because they [the electors] are not understanding. some vote slower than others, and some people who have been out here for a long time are asking how come one PD number is called and theirs is not called; and some are waiting because they don’t know their PD numbers,” Gordon said.

“We had five lines, but because of the heat of the sun they started to bundle. we had to get soldiers down here,” Gordon went on.

At the Yallahs Primary School, political liaison officer Gwenneth Houslin Foster told the Observer that the polling station opened on time, but voting was going slowly at some divisions because several returning officers were new and unfamiliar with the process, while a rush had started shortly before, during a sudden downpour of rain.

“They just believe storm [Hurricane Felix] is coming, so everybody pushing,” she said. “It just start a while ago.”

Further east in Duckenfield, Golden Grove and Hampton Court, it was business as usual for most voters, who kept their daily routine. That constituency was contested by incumbent MP Dr Fenton Ferguson of the PNP and the JLP’s Dr Omer Thomas.

An orange-and-green t-shirt-clad group hugged, joked and chatted gleefully outside the polling station at the Duckenfield Basic School, while at the Golden Grove Primary School a small group were standing lazily around waiting to enter the classroom housing the lone polling division.

Meanwhile, James Robertson told the Observer that 38 bibs intended for EOJ workers had been given to PNP agents.

“We got reports that our indoor and outdoor agents and supervisors were turned back from going to take up their positions to man the electoral process on behalf of the JLP. when we made checks, my electoral co-ordinator discovered that 38 bibs for the EOJ had been given and were in the hands of the PNP agents who were impersonating EOJ workers,” he said.

“Up to half-an-hour ago (11:00 am), only five of those bibs had been returned and we are still getting reports that the process is being tampered with. Danville Walker (the director of elections) took a clean and clear position that they were to be returned immediately. I find this very alarming. the electoral office has fallen down on the job in West St Thomas,” he went on.

Walker later told the Observer that the bibs had been given to the PNP agents in error, and that they had all been returned.