AS Jamaicans head to the polls today, Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) says it is fully prepared to monitor the electoral process across all 63 constituencies.

According to CAFFE Chairperson Grace Baston, some 700 trained volunteers are being deployed islandwide to observe the voting process. She explained that the observer group had received more than 1,000 applications; however, due to financial constraints, the final team was significantly reduced.

“By the time we went through our testing, and because of the constraints we have with funding, we’ve only deployed about 700,” she said.

Baston explained that a majority of that number would be placed inside polling stations, while others would be on the move ensuring the smooth and legitimate operation of the voting process. She also noted that some volunteers would be based in-office to continue activities there.

“By far, the majority of people will be placed as indoor observers, and then the others are the rovers. Then we also have some volunteers who are working in our data centre, and the volunteers who will be manning our headquarters,” she said.

Baston said that though CAFFE observers are not capable of being present in all electoral divisions, they will be located throughout all constituencies, with particular focus on constituencies where voting is expected to be close.

“So we had to be strategic about our deployment. We will be in every parish. We will be in every constituency. But we will have more indoor observers in those constituencies where the race is predicted to be close and tight. So in those places we try to have 15 to 20 observers.

“In other constituencies where that is not the case, we have fewer, maybe five or three or so on. So we have tried to be strategic. We obviously can’t cover 7,000 polling stations. But we’ve tried to be in as many locations as we can and where we don’t have indoor observers for one reason or another, our rovers are moving around,” assured Baston.

Further speaking to the team’s readiness, Baston divulged that volunteers were put through a training process after which they had to pass a series of tests before finally being selected as an election observer.

These measures, she said, ensured that they would be ready for whatever challenges may present themselves on site.

“We prepared our volunteers through training them. Their training was online, for the most part. Their assessment was also online, because they had to pass some quizzes to be able to be considered trained.

“Those training exercises involved familiarising them with the voting process, exactly how it should go, what should be in place, being able to identify any irregularities, training them how to record for reporting purposes, what they’re observing. So they had to be made familiar with the reporting forms and with the reporting process,” she explained.

In the meantime, funding shortfalls of about $4 million remain the organisation’s biggest challenge, admitted Baston, but she shared that CAFFE was still able to conduct observations on nomination day and during voting for election workers and the nation’s security forces.

“We were able to have roving observers out on nomination day. We also had some rovers out during the voting of election day workers and police and soldiers. We really didn’t have a lot of difficulty,” she said.

Furthermore, in the case of uncertainty by any observer, Baston explained that they were fully supported with senior representatives stationed in-office who are able to take phone calls and answer all questions.

“So an observer who runs into any difficulty, who has a question, always has recourse to reaching somebody. On election day there are numbers that can be used by the observers to reach the CAFFE headquarters, where phones are manned to answer any questions.

“CAFFE also has a representative at the Election Centre, where we can bring any concerns we have directly to the ECJ (Electoral Commission of Jamaica), and to the EOJ (Electoral Office of Jamaica),” said Baston.

CAFFE is an independent organisation that observes the voting process to ensure all tenets of democracy are being maintained, including the secrecy of the ballot and a lack of intimidation influencing choices. The group has overseen multiple elections since its inception.

“We did a report on nomination day; there was some traffic congestion but the police were out in force, trying to ease that so no, we didn’t have any major issues, and we anticipate that today will be no different,” she said.

The election is also being observed by the Organization of American States.

Members of the Organization of American States Electoral Observation Mission meeting with Citizens Action for Free and Fair Elections (CAFFE) chairperson Grace Baston (left) and deputy chairman of CAFFE Anton Thompson (partly hidden) ahead of today’s general elections in Jamaica. (Photo: OAS)