Two electoral constituencies — St Andrew North Eastern and Trelawny Southern — are to have new polling divisions added shortly, in response to breaches of the Constitution created by the fact that their registered voting populations are below the legal lower limit.

The Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) has proposed that their boundaries should be adjusted by transferring four polling divisions from North Central St Andrew to North Eastern St Andrew, and 12 from North Trelawny to South Trelawny.

Both affected constituencies are held by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), with Minister of Justice, Delroy Chuck representing North East St Andrew and Marisa Dalrymple Philibert the Member of Parliament for South Trelawny.

North Central St Andrew is represented by the JLP’s Karl Samuda, who is Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, while North Trelawny is represented by the Opposition People’s National Party’s (PNP) Victor White.

Both North Eastern St Andrew and Southern Trelawny are below the constituencies lower limit of 18,398, at 18,299 and 18,370, respectively. The average number of electors per constituency is 27,597 and the upper limit is 41,396.

But, the ECJ faces an even bigger challenge, as it needs to address the issue of 153 polling divisions across 33 parishes, which are situated outside of the parish in which the constituencies are located. This has been the case for some time now, despite the fact that section 67 of the Jamaican Constitution states that “boundary of a constituency shall not cross the boundary of a parish as delimited by the Counties and Parishes (1867) or by any law amending or replacing that law.”

As the ECJ explained in the report: “In effect this means that polling division boundaries (which collectively determine the outline of constituency boundaries) shall also not cross parish boundaries”.

The commission said that its main objective is to have electoral boundaries conform to their respective parish boundaries, as required by law. A diagram attached to the report by the commissioners showed a section of the Borobridge/Gravel Road area of South Western St Ann forming part of the South Trelawny constituency.

The commission said that the diagram showed that a Member of Parliament may actually be representing a geographic area (and the residents) that, technically, do not fall within the parish (and by extension the constituency/electoral division) that the candidate intends to represent. It also pointed out that, due to this, voters have been casting ballots to decide the political outcome of constituencies and political divisions outside of the parish in which they reside.

“This, in essence, means that the political outcome of the constituency/electoral division may be influenced by electors residing in another constituency, if the lines of demarcation (in this case parish boundaries) separating these electoral jurisdictions are not adhered to,” the ECJ said.

The commission explained that the factors behind these discrepancies include: historical accounts; past and existing land records; socio-cultural factors; natural and man-made physical features; and imaginary demarcations.

The discrepancies were brought into sharp focus when the ECJ introduced the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in 2008 to enhance its ability to detect the anomalies. Parliamentarians raised concerns last May, suggesting then that the issue of constituencies having areas crossing into other parishes was being treated “flippantly” in the electoral process despite being unconstitutional. However, the ECJ had admitted that a number of the issues had to be ignored due to the lack of technology.

Former House Speaker and Chairman of the Boundaries Committee, Michael Peart said that with the use of the new technology, the ECJ should be able to determine where the anomalies existed and address them.

Director of Elections Orrette Fisher confirmed at a Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange last September, that the ECJ had started the first set of meetings dealing with the anomalies, which had been raised by the Boundaries Committee.

The report was expected to be tabled and approved by March 31. However, it was not tabled until last Thursday, May 12, and this could have been delayed by the intervening general election.

Fisher told the Observer that, in the past, there was a lot of dependence on what was heard on the ground from people who may have lived in the area, based on what their grandparents would have told them, in determining the boundaries.

“Now, with the emerging technology, the ECJ has naturally moved to utilise the geographic information system (GIS) and, therefore, mapping out constituency boundaries has now become more precise,” he told the Observer’s Monday Exchange.

He said that with the emergence of satellite imagery, the commission is now in a position where things that were assumed or taken for granted can be scientifically tested.