Gov't to spend $2.5 billion to clean up voters' list

The Government will be spending at least $2.5 billion over the next two fiscal years to clean the voters’ list of hundreds of thousands of names that should not be there.

Finance and the Public Service Minister Audley Shaw says he met a week ago with the director of elections and an official from the Electoral Commission of Jamaica to discuss the issue.

Responding to a question from his Opposition counterpart, Shaw said he will be recommending to the Cabinet that the electoral body carry out a “brand new” enumeration exercise.

He says the last full enumeration activity was done some 17 years ago and a reverification exercise was carried out about 10 years ago.

According to Shaw, there are between 300,000 and 500,000 names on the voters’ list which should be removed.

For years there has been a debate about the credibility of the voters’ list with many arguing that thousands of dead people remain on it.