RARING TO GO

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) says it will wrap training of more than 30,000 workers for the February 26 local government elections this weekend as it finalises the first phase of its preparation for the long-awaited polls.

“We’re fairly advanced in our preparation. We have been preparing for some time. We’ll be now moving to the other phase and that kicks in after nomination day,” Director of Elections Glasspole Brown told The Gleaner on Thursday.

The update came hours after Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie announced that Jamaicans will vote for local representatives in three weeks with nomination day set for next week Thursday, February 8.

There had been at least four delays in holding the election, which first became due in November 2020.

“So, we’ll begin preparing the ballots, looking at the final list we’ll be using at the polling stations on election day. We are wrapping up our training this weekend and we are fairly advanced in terms of getting all our workers in place. We’ll be using in excess of 30,000,” Brown disclosed.

He said the workers include presiding officers, poll clerks, supervisors, logistics coordinators, one-day policemen, and support staff, including janitors and drivers.

“We are on track in terms of where we want to be and the timeline we have set for ourselves,” he said.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Mark Golding described the announcement of the date for the election as a good day for democracy, noting that the country has been waiting for four years.

Golding said the Opposition was prepared to take the Government to court if it had not announced the date by February 28, when it would become constitutionally due.

‘TIME HAS COME’

“We’re very happy now that the time has come. The gate has been flown and we are ready to take them on,” Golding told journalists while touring St Mary on Thursday.

“I say to all of our supporters, get ready, saddle up because we’re going to show the Jamaica Labour Party Government that time come for a new Government – first with the local and then after with the general. The people of Jamaica want change. They want integrity in public life … ,” he added.

He said Jamaicans are weary of the high cost of living “and a Government that doesn’t do enough to help the people who are suffering the most”.

Golding said that Jamaicans want to see the People’s National Party in government because of its traditions of caring for them while building of the country and institutions that move the country forward as it governs with integrity.

“So we’re very pleased that a date has finally been called and we’re raring to go, and we look forward to a clean election [and] abiding by the rules. I will say to all of our supporters, ‘Campaign hard but campaign fair and don’t do anything to bring your party’s name into any kind of disrepute’,” said Golding.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Andrew Holness and McKenzie asserted that the JLP has been “ready” to go to the polls.

“We are ready and we are confident of what our objectives are and we are more than confident of the outcome of the election. We have an enormous amount to talk about in terms of achievements and successes of the administrations,” McKenzie told The Gleaner on Thursday.

The minister said these successes are “unprecedented”, arguing that there is no other administration since 1947 that can boast about the level of achievements he said this Jamaica Labour Party administration has pulled off at the local level.

“So, the prime minister is correct. We are fit and ready and raring to go,” said McKenzie.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com