People’s National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell was left with egg on his face Tuesday when the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) made it clear that only presiding officers appointed by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) are authorised to verify voter identification cards at polling stations.

The ECJ was responding to Campbell’s declaration at a PNP mass meeting in Mandeville, Manchester, on Sunday that the party had equipped its indoor agents with integrity lamps to verify the identification cards submitted by voters in next Wednesday’s general election.

Campbell had claimed that the only way the Jamaica Labour Party can win the election is if they steal it.

“They know that they can’t win this fair and square, and so they going to come with all sorts of chikeny,” Campbell told the crowd, adding that he has made a decision, and the PNP has bought integrity lamps for every single constituency, “so that we have trained our indoor agents [to] tek up yuh integrity lamp, look pon di voter ID, look fi di security mark”.

He said that in each constituency the workers have been given a security lamp, “so that [they] can look at the ID to make sure that the necessary security features are there. And if you see somebody come inna di polling station and yuh know to God dat wha him say him name, a nuh him name so, wi a go bawl out”.

The general secretary reminded that it is an offence, under sections 95 and 96 of the Representation of the People Act, for an individual to impersonate someone else.

“So, Comrades, look out fi dem because a one man, one vote inna dis yah election. Dem nah tief dis,” Campbell declared.

However, the ECJ, on which Campbell sits as a nominated commissioner, said, “By law, only specified equipment is allowed within the vicinity of polling stations and under the control of the presiding officer.”

The commission emphasised that, “Only the presiding officer appointed by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is authorised to verify voter identification cards. No other person, including indoor agents, has the authority to carry out this verification. Furthermore, no integrity lamp outside of the official equipment issued by the EOJ will be used in the polling station during the verification process.”

The ECJ also issued a reminder to all registered political parties of the laws that govern the procedures that apply to operations at polling stations.

It also said that electors who have not yet collected their renewed voter ID card from their EOJ constituency office are encouraged to do so before election day.