Earl Jarrett has been elected chairman of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) effective March 1, 2020.

Jarrett was elected from among the four selected commissioners of the ECJ in keeping with the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act 2006 which states that “the selected commissioners shall elect one of their number to be chairman of the commission and so inform the governor general”.

Jarrett, was appointed to the ECJ in 2013 under the chairmanship of Dorothy Pine-McLarty, who retired on December 31, 2019.

She was replaced by retired Chief Justice Zaila McCalla on January 1, 2020.

The ECJ comprises nine members — the director of elections, four selected commissioners, and four nominated commissioners, two nominated on the advice of the prime minister and two on the advice of the leader of the Opposition.

A chartered accountant and graduate of The University of the West Indies, Jarrett is general manager of the Jamaica National Group and has been giving yeoman service to Jamaica for many years.

He is a director of all local and overseas companies and entities in the JN Group. He is also chairman of:

• Jamaica Automobile Association

• Jamaica Cancer Society;

• National Council of Jamaica, Order of St John;

• The University of the West Indies Mona Campus Council; and

• Mona Geoinformatics Institute.

Jarrett is also a director of The Gleaner Company North America and Canada; trustee of the Dudley Grant Memorial Trust; director/trustee Caribbean Council (UK); and trustee member/secretary Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Foundation, an independent UK-registered charity which supports an international programme of activities promoting road safety, the environment, and sustainable mobility, as well as funds motor sport safety research.