IT was expected to be a low turnout of members of the security forces and election day workers for voting ahead of Monday’s local government election, like previous local polls, but it was made worse by persistent heavy rain into the afternoon yesterday.

Voting, which commenced at 8:00 am yesterday morning, saw just a trickling of voters coming out to the designated polling stations in the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew during the earlier part of the day.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the Police Officers’ Club in Kingston just an hour after the polls were opened, election day workers were seen seated waiting patiently for voters to come by. It was reported that only two people had exercised their right to vote in the first hour, and a check made in the early afternoon found that an additional 10 people had turned out to vote.

At the Half-Way-Tree Police Station, election workers declined to say how many people had voted but at least five members of the police force were at the polling station to vote, two hours after the polls opened.

A representative from the Electoral Office of Jamaica said some police officers who had sought shelter from the rain at a building across from the room used for voting, indicated that they would come back at a later time during the day.

Some police personnel, who were able to vote before the morning showers came down again, said they were fulfilling their civic duty by participating in the election process.

“It was just the need to exercise my own rights as a citizen. If you don’t vote, I don’t think you should be complaining when things not going your way, so that’s just my view. but to each his own,” a member of the security force who identified himself as Detective Corporal Davidson told the

Observer after casting his vote at the polling station.

Constable Leon Miller of the St Andrew Central Police Division, echoed similar sentiments as he stated that not only is voting a constitutional right of Jamaicans that must be exercised, but one that needs become a habit for Jamaicans.

“This is nothing we should be afraid of, as a matter of fact I wish that most things in society were put to voting for people to decide upon, even the constitutional laws that are passed… I think this is a habit the Jamaican people need to develop and do what they are supposed to do,” Miller said just before going to cast his vote at the Mobile Reserve in Kingston.

When asked if his fellow officers took a similar stance, he said that he was not concerned with what his colleagues wanted to do as he felt compelled to go and cast his vote because it was the right thing to do.

Corporal Foster of the Half-Way-Tree Police Station said that the local government election is not one that has always attracted many Jamaicans, especially police officers or other persons who spend a lot of time away from their homes.

“…You have police officers who are housed at the stations or wherever they are staying and so they may not be necessarily interested in local government elections that are way back in yonder from whence they came and then, of course, I don’t think a lot of people understand the value of local government elections,” he said.

“I don’t think local government has done enough to get the importance of the elections out there to the people on the ground. A lot of persons are interested in general elections but persons just see local government as a little sideshow that could have been done in the general election, so I think its public education that needs to be done,” he added.

Voting was equally slow at other polling stations for election day workers and members of the security forces at the Elleston Road, Hunt’s Bay, Olympic Gardens, Duhaney Park police station, and Denham Town High School, where electoral workers waited for voters to come in.

“The weather impacted the turnout; it is extremely slow. Zero activity, just a few turn out. Dem (the police) just a wake out of dem bed,” an EOJ representative told the Observer less that two hours after the polling stations opened..

Some 38,877 special services electors were yesterday eligible to vote at 329 locations islandwide.

Of that number, more than 10,000 police were slated to cast their votes at 74 locations islandwide, 2,300 army personnel were designated to vote at 18 locations islandwide, while the other 237 locations were reserved for election day workers.

Things were, however, different in Portland Western and Eastern where there was a reported unusually high 60 per cent turnout by members of the security forces and election day workers.

— Javene Skyers, Racquel Porter and Everald Owen contributed to this story