With voting fully underway in the local government election, Deputy Commissioner of Police Clifford Blake says all polling stations islandwide have been equipped with adequate security personnel.

“I must say the plan has gone according to expectation. We had a few hiccups but those were sorted out and as of 7:30, the feedback from all my commanders is that all polling stations have to been manned and voting has progressed well. Feedback from the Electoral Office of Jamaica is that things have been going very well and I must say there has been no report of any major incident, which is very good, but overall things are going very well and we will continue to monitor situations,” Blake said.

The deputy police commissioner of police says the JCF is utilising technology to monitor activities across the island in real time.

Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police Christopher Phillips, head of the St Catherine South Police Division, is reporting that voting have been slow in the division.

“As you are aware, today is the local government election and I am out with the team. I am here with part of my stand-by team checking on the locations. We visited all the polling stations in the Greater Portmore, Hellshire area and now we are here at the Gregory Park Primary School. So far things have been pretty slow, one of the good thing about today is that the police were able to take care of the ground very early this morning and so it give us a very good start.

“For most of the stations that I have visited, they have reported that things are a bit slow, but people are coming in gradually. I am happy with the kind of maturity that I am seeing with the voters and the cooperation so far and we just want it to remain for today and for the period of celebration,” Phillips said.

The polls opened at 7 a.m. this morning and will close at 5 p.m., after which the preliminary counting of ballots will take place inside the polling stations.

The Electoral Commission of Jamaica says 98 per cent of polling stations opened on time, while the remaining 2.0 per cent opened before 7:30 a.m.

A total of 2,001,759 Jamaicans are eligible to vote in today’s election.