Governor-General, Professor Kenneth Hall, presents the Instrument of Appointment to Danville Walker, who was officially appointed the Director of Elections at a ceremony at King's House yesterday. In background is Captain Samuel Ellis, the Governor-General's aide-de-camp. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Director of Elections, Danville Walker, says the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will be using the electronic identification system in 800 polling stations in the country's next general elections.

Mr. Walker made the disclosure shortly after being officially presented with the instrument of appointment as the Director of Elections by Governor-General, Professor Kenneth Hall, yesterday morning at King's House.

"We know it works. We have no doubt about it working, what we are now working on is the capacity of the electoral office to be able to manage 800 stations and deploy those persons and manage those polls using that system," he said.

Mr. Walker, however, refused to disclose which constituencies the system will be used in.

"We are not going to say where now," he told The Gleaner, when asked if so-called garrison constituencies were being considered.

The EOJ has used the system in the West Kingston by-election in 2005 and in two Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation electoral divisions in the Local Government elections held in June, 2003. It reported that this pilot project was successful and recommended the system for full-scale implementation throughout Jamaica.

Mr. Walker also gave the assurance that the EOJ would be ready for the elections when they are called. He said training for 18,000 election workers has already been completed, and that training was ongoing for persons who will use the electronic voter identification and ballot system.

Meanwhile, Mr. Walker said some 50,000 new names would be added to the new voters list which is to be published on May 31.

Mr. Walker said the EOJ was given an initial allocation of $816 million, which was later increased to accommodate the size of the electronic voter identification system.

He, however, pointed out: "The longer the election takes, the more expensive it becomes because you have to keep training people."

In his reply, Mr. Walker said he was proud to be the Director of Elections.

Walker, who is being appointed for the third time as Director of Elections, will serve in the post for another seven years. He has been in the post since 1997.