Dear Editor,

Over the past week or so, several persons in the Greater Portmore East Division have complained to me about the difficulties they are experiencing in collecting their Electoral Registration Identification Card, more popularly known as the voter ID.

The problem is that individuals, who go to the Electoral Office to collect their voter ID, are informed that it has been sent to the post office and should be collected there. This practice is not the norm and has caused numerous amounts of persons to be inconvenienced, not only because of the wasted time and taxi fare, but also the fact that visits to the post offices have been futile as persons are told that the cards are not ready for distribution there.

A call to the Electoral Office revealed that they are conducting a pilot project to ascertain whether the distribution of voter IDs will be more feasible at the post offices rather than at the local electoral offices.

While there is nothing wrong with the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) trying to find ways and means to improve its service delivery, it is important that it be mindful of the need to inform the general public — in a timely manner — of its desire to experiment with or change what has become a well-known system of operation.

Would it have been too much for the EOJ to advertise and inform the public of its desire to implement a pilot project? Is it that the EOJ, like so many other government agencies, is contemptuous of the Jamaican people?

The people of Jamaica deserve much better than that.

Aldrane E Genius

aldrane.genius@gmail.com