GrahamGlenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
AS ELECTORAL officials refine security measures for the Local Govern-ment elections, two constituencies in the new Portmore municipality have been added to the Electoral Office of Ja-maica's (EOJ) 'watch list' for the upcoming polls.
EOJ public relations officer, Neville Graham, said that the areas of St. Catherine Southern and parts of St. Catherine South Central in which the Portmore division falls have now been designated "specialist status" bringing to 10 the number of such areas islandwide.
Specialist divisions are those polling divisions which receive closer scrutiny under election conditions, especially regarding the delivery and collection of ballot boxes. The areas also attract special security arrangements while specially trained election day personnel are selected and installed.
But these, Mr. Graham said, may not necessarily include violence-prone areas.
"A feature of these areas is that there is usually some aspect of voter intimidation or even thuggery where persons would overrun a polling station, steal or stuff ballot boxes," he said. "Or (there may also be) just downright skulduggery or complicity on the part of electoral officials." Previously, there were eight such areas: St. Catherine Central, parts of St. Catherine South Central, St. Andrew Eastern, St. Andrew West Central, Kingston Central, Clarendon Central, St. Andrew Northern, and St. Andrew South East.
Some of the communities which will come under special scrutiny and fall under St. Catherine Southern and St. Catherine South Central include Greater Portmore East, Braeton, Naggo Head, Hellshire, Waterford, Edgewater, Bridgeport and Gregory Park.
Mr. Graham explained that following on the 2002 General Election, increased measures were put in place to limit this behaviour.
WORKING WITH POLICE
While cautious about revealing details of any security plan, Mr. Graham said that certain features were already set up to ensure a smooth process.
"We are working closely with the police top brass and have been meeting regularly with them for debriefing sessions following the 2002 elections," he said.
"At the local level, the returning officers have developed a very good working relationship with the police with a view to being able to more readily highlight potential 'trouble spots'," he said. "Right now we are confident that they know what we want and we are comfortable that they will be able to put in place the necessary strategy to achieve this."
In addition he said, a cadre of 'handpicked, well-trained, highly intelligent' individuals have been recruited by the EOJ to work as presiding officers to be deployed to these areas.
