The Electoral Office of Jamaica says its oversaw a successful Special Services Voting on Thursday (February 22), to facilitate early voting for members of the police and military forces, as well as election day workers (EDWs). 

The office disclosed that a total of 40,514 special service electors were earmarked to participate in this early voting process, ensuring their availability for duty come Election Day.

This group comprises 10,544 members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), 4,882 military personnel from the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), and 25,088 EDWs.

Special provisions are every election cycle made to accommodate the voting needs of military and police personnel as well as EDWs under provisions of the Representation of the People Act. 

To facilitate this process, the names of these special service voters were meticulously extracted from the official Voters’ List and dispersed to 270 designated locations, which collectively house 365 polling stations. 

The distribution of these locations is as follows: 10 polling locations (38 polling stations) for military voting, 21 polling locations (78 polling stations) for the police, and 239 polling locations (249 polling stations) for EDWs.

These designated polling locations spanned various sites including police stations, military bases, schools, churches, and community centres, strategically placed to accommodate the diverse roles and locations of the special service electors.

Glasspole Brown, Director of Elections, emphasised the importance of employer cooperation in enabling Election Day Workers to fulfil their duties.

“We are appealing to employers to give Election Day Workers the necessary time off on Election Day to carry out their civic duty. We are also expressing appreciation to those employers who have readily committed to allowing their employees to work on Election Day,” he stated.

At the time of publication, an EOJ officer was unable to provide information with respect to difficulties observed during voting proceedings when contacted by Our Today.