KINGSTON, Jamaica — OBSERVER ONLINE has just been informed that the final count of ballots in the St Thomas Western constituency was halted a short while ago.

It is understood that electoral officials took the decision to halt the count and remove all the boxes to the headquarters of the Electoral Office of Jamaica in Kingston.

One electoral official told OBSERVER ONLINE that the decision to move the count to Kingston was based on getting the right conditions in place for the count to be done properly.

Electoral staffers, according to the source, were complaining that counting of the ballots in Yallahs was uncomfortable as the space they were working with was just too small to operate in.

The electoral official was quick to point out that this was not the first time in the history of elections in Jamaica that such a decision has been made by the EOJ.

“It happened recently in St Andrew North East, St Andrew Eastern, and St Mary South East. It has been done regularly in the past.”

The St Thomas Western constituency was contested by James Robertson for the Jamaica Labour Party and Marsha Francis for the People’s National Party in the elections last week Thursday.