Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Bruce Golding (centre) flashes a smile as he is assisted with carrying his birthday cake by fellow December birthday boy Desmond Mckenzie (left). A smiling JLP general secretary Karl Samuda looks on after the party's press conference held at the JLP's Belmont Road headquarters last night, following its local government election victory. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is celebrating its second straight victory at the polls in just three months, its third in four years, having swept yesterday's local government elections.

At the end of the preliminary count last night, the JLP had won nine of the 13 parish councils, while the St. Ann Parish Council was declared a tie, with both the JLP and the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) winning eight divisions each in the 16-seat council. The PNP, which only won Westmoreland and Portmore in the 2003 elections before adding Portland, yesterday picked up Hanover and Manchester to go along with Westmoreland.

The PNP retained the Portmore municipality and George Lee, PNP, was returned as mayor. He defeated the JLP's Keith Hinds by a narrow margin of 27 votes.

Last night an ecstatic JLP leader Bruce Golding, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, said the victory was important to the party's drive for local government reform.

Yesterday's landslide victory for the JLP follows the party's narrow victory over the PNP in the September 3 general election and its landslide victory in the 2003 local government polls.

A low voter turnout characterised yesterday's local polls with fewer than 40 per cent of eligible voters casting their ballots.

This apathetic response from voters compares with 40 per cent in the 2003 elections.

Political analysts are attributing the low voter turnout to the country's high crime rate, a historical disinterest in local elections and a lack of resources on the part of the political parties.

Too soon

Charlene Sharpe-Pryce, lecturer at Northern Caribbean University, told The Gleaner that the election was called too early after the September 3 polls.

"During that entire period of the general election, given all the circumstances that the people faced then, people were traumatised," she said. "People are now just trying to put themselves back together and having to face a local government election at this time is a bit too much."

She said people are also traumatised as it relates to the rate of crime and violence and the rising cost of basic food items.

Political analyst Dickie Crawford argued that the resources could be a factor and the fear in relation to the escalating violence, which claimed the lives of dozens of persons in the last week.

"A fair amount of money was spent by the political parties, I don't know if they had the money or resources to have a substantive campaign for local government," Crawford reasoned.

Director of Elections, Danville Walker, said more than one factor contributed to the low polling in yesterday's parish council election.

According to Mr. Walker this was the first local government election since the Electoral Office of Jamaica carried out an extensive re-verification exercise. In addition, he said it was the first time that the EVIBIS machine which identifies voters using finger print technology, was used in a number of polling divisions in garrison constituencies.

Mr. Walker also told journalists yesterday at a press conference at the Election Centre, that specialist workers were also assigned to garrisons. "So we have to be careful that when we are looking at turnout we don't mistake the reduction in the number of votes because we have a tightening up in the system".

Meanwhile, 99 per cent of the 6,376 polling stations islandwide opened at 7:00 a.m, according to electoral officials.

Mr. Walker said EOJ staff and the police kept a close watch on several trouble spots where there were few incidents, including a roadblock on Jacques Road off Mountain View Avenue.

The Gleaner team of reporters visited a number of polling divisions in the Corporate Area, St. Thomas and St. Mary to monitor the voting process.

Wednesdays are traditionally slow business days in the downtown Kingston area and yesterday would rank among the slowest. Storeowners and peddlers in the market district told The Gleaner that they made little sale as shoppers stayed away from the shopping district.

The news team also toured communities in Western Kingston, Central Kingston and East Kingston and Port Royal and the results were all the same - dead streets and few voting activities throughout. Many polling station workers complained of being bored while others took time to sleep.

One voter commented that something was drastically wrong with local government and the importance attached to it by voters. "Something needs to be done because nobody cares about local government, not even I know who my local government representatives are."

At the St. Mary Parish Council in Port Maria there was a joint police/military contingent stationed there after citizens reported voter intimidation and summoned the security forces.

Fitz-Maurice Gray, JLP candidate and incumbent for the Port Maria division said: "People were telling persons, especially the senior citizens, where to and how to vote so they called the police and the army came".

Harry Douglas, the PNP candidate who lost South East St. Mary to Tarn Peralto in the general election, claimed that voters of the Annotto Bay division were being bribed to vote JLP.

"I know that votes are being bought, in some cases, for $2,000," said Mr. Douglas.

However, Hugh Bryan of the JLP who ran against the PNP's Valerie Walters for the Annotto Bay division dismissed the allegations.

"I am not aware of that. What I do know is that since last night (Tuesday) posters of my opponent were pasted at the Annotto Bay All-Age polling station," Mr. Bryan said.

Our news team also stopped in the troubled Seaforth division in St. Thomas where the incumbent Joan Spencer, Mayor of Morant Bay, was battling the People's National Party's (PNP) Shirley Douglas.

Outside of the police seizing an election-day vehicle and an officer sending a JLP supporter home after frisking him and his friends, there was nothing much to write home about.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com

Results of Local Gov't Election

JLP

Kgn and St. Andrew Corporation St. Mary

Portland

Trelawny

St. Elizabeth

St. James

Clarendon

St. Thomas

St. Catherine

St. Ann - (A tie)

PNP

Westmoreland

Manchester

Hanover

Portmore