Director of Elections Glasspole Brown has advised that the final counting of ballots from Monday’s (February 26) local government elections is underway.

He said counting is in progress at 63 counting centres across Jamaica.

“We await those results. As soon as they come in, we will be releasing it to the public. Some constituencies will be completed today but not everybody will be completed. We might issue an advisory, certainly by 5:00 p.m. this afternoon, in terms of the days’ activities,” Brown said.

Preliminary results indicate that the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won seven of the municipal corporations, with the People’s National Party (PNP) taking four.

There is a tie in Kingston and St Andrew, with both parties taking 20 divisions; and in Clarendon with 11 divisions each.

The corporations won by the JLP include St Thomas, Portland, St Mary, St Ann, Trelawny, St James and St Elizabeth.

Those won by the PNP include the parishes of Hanover, Westmoreland, Manchester and St Catherine.

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) said the preliminary voter turnout for the local government election was 29.6 per cent.