The traditional news media on which the country relies heavily for serious information was clearly struggling — in a way we had not seen before — to report accurately on the results of the local government election Monday night.

Consequently, the country went to bed uncertain of which party had won the polls, especially with the two major party leaders, the governing Jamaica Labour Party’s Andrew Holness and the Opposition People’s National Party’s Mark Golding, both claiming victory.

The difficulty in getting out accurate information in a timely manner appeared to trip up the news media to the extent that Jamaica’s foremost political journalist, Mr Cliff Hughes, who has a most credible record of calling elections early, on Monday night called the winner prematurely, for which he graciously apologised, and the usually clinical Ms Dionne Jackson-Miller had to employ great skill in anchoring TVJ’s results show.

Journalists reporting from the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) Election Centre and the party headquarters at Old Hope Road and Belmont Road in St Andrew appeared frustrated — a situation made worse for the electronic media because they were broadcasting live.

The print media, accustomed over the years to having clear results by 8:00 pm on election night, worked well into the early hours of the morning, only to end up with headlines declaring, not a winner, but ‘Close call’ (Jamaica Observer) and ‘Claiming victory’ (Daily Gleaner).

Rather unusually, the social media platforms seemed to be waiting on the traditional media for clear information but, when they were not being served, resumed their usual tendency to speculate, spreading obvious confusion among enquiring Jamaicans, many of them overseas.

But if the media were struggling, the political parties were no better off. Hence, Mr Golding, with his supporters already celebrating, declared victory.

JLP supporters looked to have abandoned their party headquarters until much later in the night when Mr Holness turned up and he, too, declared victory.

We must await the official report promised by Director of Elections Mr Glasspole Brown about what might have caused the slow flow of results, but while he has initially pointed to the Internet providers, it is important that the country gets full clarity on the matter.

It is critical to get a full understanding because this is happening at a time when there is greater use of communication technology and the perception is that the EOJ is an old hand at it and the operation should have been like a walk in the park.

Moreover, with the abysmally low turnout of 29.6 per cent of the electorate, one wonders what will happen with the general election due in 18 months’ time, not a very long time, worse if the prime minister decides to go to the polls earlier.

The fact is that Jamaica is accustomed to knowing usually by 8:00 pm which party had won the local government polls, even if results for some divisions are outstanding and some results might change after the final or magisterial recounts.

We expect Mr Brown to tell us what his returning officers islandwide reported, as well as where his Internet providers to whom he referred fell down. To carry on as if it’s business as usual is to set us for an even bigger failure next time.

Without quick answers, people will be filling in their own blanks.