By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter 
Eager voters at the Maverley All-Age School, North West St. Andrew, yesterday morning. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
POLLING WAS peaceful and for the most part smooth in North West St. Andrew yesterday.
The polling stations in these constituencies opened at the scheduled 7 a.m., or a few minutes later and although the rains threatened, voter turn-out in this constituency was heavy in the earlier hours of the morning.
Some of them had to mark their Xs in poorly lit rooms brought on by general overcast conditions and electricity failure.
Polling Division personnel subsequently managed to obtain battery operated lamps to allow the process to go smoother.
A potential sore point developed at the Maverley All-Age School in the constituency as an unruly crowd converged at the gate of the polling station from as early as 8:45 a.m. There was no one to supervise the assigning of electors to a line based on their polling divisions was making for general chaos. Just after 9.30 a.m., however, the security forces managed to get electors to form clear queues.
PNP candidate for NW St. Andrew Nenna Wilson and the Rev. Al Miller, chairman of the New Jamaica Alliance and that party's candidate for Eastern St. Andrew both cast their ballots early in the morning at the Arlene Gardens Gospel Assembly. The polling at both Arlene Gardens and the Maverley All-Age were incident free.
All appeared calm in Eastern St. Andrew when The Gleaner teamed visited that area during a heavy downpour of rain. Several electoral officials could be seen sitting idly as there were no electors coming forward. At other PDs, the electors were stranded for a while as they had signed their Xs but were detained because for the rains.
In general the elections in NW St. Andrew and Eastern St. Andrew were conducted orderly and without much hiccups. CAFFE observers were on hand at all the polling stations visited in the two constituencies as were a detachment of police and soldiers as well as PNP and JLP scrutineers.
Several scrutineers wore their party colours into polling divisions. Not many persons seemed to have heeded the Director of Elections, Danville Walker's call for persons to wear gold on election day.
