THE huge deployment of members of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard seemed at odds with the slow trickle of voters into Port Royal Primary School in the constituency of Eastern Kingston and Port Royal yesterday morning.

“This is the only area we are responsible for, hence the large contingent from the coast guard base (in Port Royal). We are here to support the police and ensure peace is kept,” said Lieutenant Commander David Chin Fong.

Inside the school, the only polling cluster in the constituency, three polling stations were being heavily monitored by Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) staff, one-day police and indoor and outdoor agents from both parties.

Reports were of smooth polling except for 58-year-old Frank Gayle, an ex-JDF Coast Guard. Gayle was not on the civilian voters’ list. After some debate, it became apparent he had not done the necessary re-registration, having retired from the army in June. It was a forlorn Gayle who stood in his emerald coloured shirt when he heard he had lost his franchise.

“I am not blaming the authorities, nor am I taking the blame. I left the army in June. There should have been more done to tell people like me how to change our voting status,” he lamented.

The town of Port Royal was quiet save for supporters of the incumbent People’s National Party (PNP) candidate, Phillip Paulwell.

One man complained he had been ticketed by the police for driving without his seat belt after he dropped some elderly voters at the polling station, having picked them up a short distance away.

A few persons in green T-shirts, supporters of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Peter Sangster, who contested the seat, shouted “a happy shower New Year”! as vehicles passed through a lively street football game.

Back on the mainland, pelting sun notwithstanding, orange-clad voters congregated at the open lot at the entrance to Jarret Lane in Eastern St Andrew, waiting to dip their fingers in the voters’ ink.

“It hot sah! But we a wait, cause PNP haffi win back dis!” declared one young woman, her face, with its artificially lightened skin, swathed in an orange T-shirt.

Veteran politician Dr Omar Davies, there to support his newbie Comrade Andre Hylton, commented that there could have been more organisation in terms of making the electors comfortable during their wait. The four polling stations were housed in tents in the open field with little to no shelter.

Despite his complaints he was confident.

“Andre is going to win… I like Saphire, I’ve known her a long time. Maybe we will offer her a position in the Glenmuir Past Students’ Association as consolation,” he chuckled facetiously, saying it was his alma mater as well as that of Dr Saphire Longmore, Hylton’s JLP challenger.

Up the road at the Mountain View Church of God, long lines with grumpy voters, almost all of them in green, told the tale of delays caused by the Electronic Identification of the Voter and Ballot Issuing System (EIVBIS) voter ID system.

“Mi deh here from 8:30 and all now…!” griped one woman. Some voters said they had heard the machines had broken down, but this was dismissed by the EOJ supervisor who refused the Observer team entry to the polling station itself to see the machines in action.

Also in the Eastern St Andrew constituency, at the Goldsmith Villa Primary School polling cluster, the police kept a tight grip on the gates, controlling the stream of voters trying to get inside. Still, the atmosphere was jovial as green and orange-clad supporters shared umbrellas and posed for the cameras.

Some miles away, in the hills above Papine, JLP and PNP supporters turned the Gordon Town square in East Rural St Andrew into a street party. Traffic was jammed up in the usually quiet town, with supporters from both parties streaming in and out.

A moving human wall of green on one side of the square was mirrored by a wall of orange on the other side.

“Wi a tun up di ting!” said a Rastafarian man in green, a supporter of JLP candidate Joan Gordon-Webley. His PNP counterparts raised a shout in response, grinning, no rancour in their faces.

“Jah rain a go fall and wash it weh fi shower…!” he said, giving his name as ‘Buzz Rock Warrior’ and pointing to the dark rain clouds overhead.

“PNP tun up and buck in East Rural!” declared a woman wearing PNP candidate Damion Crawford’s T-shirt and cap.

There was no sign of the other Damian Crawford, whose nomination as an independent two weeks ago caught EOJ officials by surprise. One person said they had seen the elusive Crawford briefly.

His name and symbol (a crossed hammer and scythe) did not seem to cause any obvious confusion, according to polling officials as voting proceeded in an orderly fashion.

“In and out in two minutes,” said a smiling woman with silver hair of the process.

At the Grove Primary School polling cluster, a little ways down the hill, voters had to ‘cross it’; trekking down a hill and over a bridge high above the Hope River to get there.

Then, much to the dismay of a young woman in a wheelchair and another on crutches wearing a massive cast, voters had to hike up a steep hill to the school with its four polling stations.

One woman complained that the crowd of rowdy supporters were intimidating some of her employees wanting to cast their ballots.

“It can be very frightening, the way they have gathered over there. A member of my staff asked me to come with him so he could vote,” said Tanya Stewart. Another observer complained that the ever-present vuvuzelas should not have been allowed, as the noise just contributed to the rowdy atmosphere.