KINGSTON, Jamaica - Director of Elections Glasspole Brown, says that following Monday’s Local Government election, the final count of ballots was being carried out on Tuesday at centers across the island’s 63 constituencies.
The counting is being done as both major political parties, the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP), have claimed victory in the election.
According to the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), the preliminary results shows that the JLP has control of seven municipalities while the PNP is holding onto the four and there is currently a tie for the Kingston and St. Andrew and Clarendon Municipal Corporations.
As the counting is taking place, members of both parties are allowed to be present for the official count along with returning officers and their assistants.
But Brown says the counting may go until Thursday morning.
“It depends on how quickly they are able to complete the count at the different locations,” he said.
Meanwhile during a news conference held late Monday at JLP headquarters in the Corporate Area, Holness said there was no question that the JLP had won the election.
“If we look at what existed before, the PNP retained Westmoreland, Hanover, Manchester, and St Catherine,” Holness said. “The Jamaica Labour Party retained all that it had — Trelawny, St Mary, St Ann, St James, St Elizabeth, St Thomas, Portland.”
Holness said the election results indicated that Jamaicans have retained confidence in the Government.
But PNP President Mark Golding told supporters at the party’s headquarters, also located in the Corporate Area, that the party had pulled off a rare victory.
“Comrades, we will continue the work. We will continue to build our momentum. We will continue what we have been doing because we will not let the people down. The people want to see a PNP Government and the people want to see I man, Mark Jefferson Golding, in Jamaica House….we can go forward with confidence that we have pulled off a great victory here today. The people have spoken. The PNP is alive and well,” Golding said.
This was Jamaica’s seventeenth local elections, with the first being held in 1947, 77 years ago.
Local government elections are constitutionally here due every four years.
