Director Of Elections Says Voters’ List Is Clean

Director of Elections at the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), Glasspole Brown, is maintaining that the country has a clean voters’ list.

For several years, various local lobby groups have indicated that the voters’ list needs to be updated to show the true number of persons that are enumerated in the country.

Mr. Brown is refuting the claim that the list is not clean. “We do maintain that we have a clean list. There are persons who, over time, would have passed on and need to be removed, but we still maintain, certainly from the EOJ and the Commission (Electoral Commission of Jamaica), that we have a clean list in place at all times,” Mr. Brown told JIS News.

He credited the partnership with the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) for sustaining the integrity of the voters’ list.

“The relationship, as was mentioned, with different stakeholders, inclusive of the Registrar General’s Department, we have cemented that relationship in recent times that in fact, the Representation of the People’s Act indicates that there must be that sort of relationship with the RGD, in terms of providing us, on a quarterly basis, information and they have been doing so,” Mr. Brown said.

The Director pointed out that there is a united interest in seeing a clean voters’ list.

“We are not just relying on the RGD. There are also other stakeholders – the media houses, the churches, the hospitals, the Ministry of Health – every entity that can impact in terms of providing us with that information, we are in discussion on some sort of arrangement. So, we were looking at all the different areas that we can use to remove these persons at a much faster rate than we have been doing in the past,”  Mr. Brown said.