JTA president-elect polls rescheduled again

Western Bureau:

The General Council of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) has again rescheduled its long-overdue presidential elections, which is slated to select a president-elect for the 2020-2021 administrative year. It is expected that a new date will be set later this month.

Last month, Jasford Gabriel, the association’s president, told The Gleaner that 10,000 of the nation’s 25,000 teachers had been verified to vote for a new president-elect by using an online modality. However, the elections were not held, and according to a memo sent to teachers, which was shown to The Gleaner, the association’s general council, at a special meeting held on October 28, made some changes to the plans to facilitate the elections.

The annual presidential elections should have been held in July, but because of the COVID-19 situation, which forced the association to look at alternative modalities, to include electronic voting, the date was shifted to October but did not take place because of additional changes to facilitate a smooth process.

“The election will be of bi-modal/dual type, electronic and physically,” the memo sent to the teachers read. “The specific date is to be decided. However, the aim is to conduct the election by the end of November.”

The JTA has also revealed that it has increased the number of teachers qualified to vote and that an entity at The University of the West Indies is now in possession of the data, which they will use to carry out the elections on behalf of the JTA.

“Fourteen thousand teachers are now verified. This information was sent to a third party at the University of the West Indies, who will conduct the elections. They will conduct their sample verification, using either random or full sampling of the numbers submitted,” the memo stated, while further noting that no further submissions for online voting would be accepted.

Membership update

The powerful teachers’ union has also indicated that it is taking steps to update its membership list by way of the Ministry of Education salary advice and from bursar-paid schools as of October 2020. It further said that it would be setting up polling stations across the island to facilitate its members to vote electronically and physically.

“Physical voting will accommodate those who were not verified. Members will also be allowed to vote electronically at the polling stations,” the memo stated while noting that those who are verified to vote electronically would be allowed to cast their ballots on Thursday during the week-long election.

“UWI will take two weeks for its preparatory period while the union will use the time to educate and sensitise the members on the mode of election,” the memo added. Winston Smith, principal of Golden Spring Primary School in St Andrew, and Godfrey Drummond, a senior teacher at Petersfield Primary School in Westmoreland, are the two candidates vying for the post.