#EastPortlandBattle | Ballot recounting expected to take three days
Published:Friday | April 5, 2019 | 4:28 PM
The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) says the final count of the ballots cast in yesterday’s Portland Eastern by-election is expected to be completed over three days.
The recounting began this morning at the Port Antonio High School.
The EOJ explains that the process entails the manual counting of all ballots along with the checking of the poll books.
It notes that the returning officer has up to seven days to complete process.
The EOJ reported that the preliminary count showed that the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Ann-Marie Vaz received 9,917 votes to the 9,611 votes cast for the People’s National Party’s (PNP) Damion Crawford.
The voter turnout was 53.7 per cent.
The EOJ noted that the turnout in the 2016 General Election was 43.93 per cent.
Portland Eastern had been held by the PNP for the last 30 years.
Yesterday’s victory has broken that stronghold and at the same time increased the government’s parliamentary majority to 34 to the PNP's 29.
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