KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party (PNP) has welcomed the move by the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) to commence a special elector verification exercise to update the voters’ list.

The ECJ today announced that it aims to accelerate the identification and removal of electors on the current voters’ list who have died since 1998.

General Secretary of the PNP, Julian Robinson, this evening told OBSERVER ONLINE that the party will be working actively to cooperate and ensure that the exercise is successful.

He noted that the PNP has been advocating for a re-verification for a while now, but the Government lacked funding and so stakeholders have agreed on a dead elector removal programme.

Robinson added that the move is particularly welcomed as there are about 200,000 to 300,000 dead people who are currently on the voters’ list and this can have significant impact in terms of the number of polling stations, number of electors and to eliminate the possibility of people voting in the name of a deceased person.

The ECJ in a release today said that a major component of the initiative is an islandwide house-to-house verification of electors, which is slated to get underway in November.