Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Danville Walker ... 'They must not pass any information outside of the station (about) who voted and who they voted for'.

In an effort to eliminate the long held belief that electors' votes cannot be kept secret, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will be enforcing legislation already on the books to cut down on information that may be passed outside the polling station on election day.

Director of Elections Danville Walker, speaking yesterday at a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the company's North Street head office in central Kingston, said the EOJ would be carefully monitoring poll clerks and other workers to ensure such information is not disseminated.

"They must not pass any information outside of the station (about) who voted and who they voted for," Mr. Walker said.

Law must be enforced

He said this law must be enforced, especially if Jamaica wants to eliminate garrison politics.

According to Mr. Walker, in the 14 previous elections, election day workers did not enforce this provision under Section 99 of the Representation of the People Act.

Under the legislation, those found guilty of breaching this provision may be fined up to $80,000 or as much as five years in prison.

The Director of Elections said that gone should be the days when political activists visit persons at home and can tell them - based on information they have gathered from election day workers - that they have not voted and must come to the polling station to cast a ballot.

According to Mr. Walker, under such circumstances, voters are often led to believe that, if it is known that they have not yet voted, then it is most likely also known who they eventually vote for.

"If you go to vote or don't vote, no one knows. I don't care what it cost but we have to get there," he said.

Fingerprints shrink list

At the same time, Mr. Walker said that with the introduction of the fingerprint system, some people have disappeared from the voters' list. He pointed to one St. Andrew constituency where, between 1993 and 1997, more than 6,000 persons disappeared from the voters' list.

"After fingerprints were required, the voters' list didn't grow (and) after five years, it shrunk," Mr. Walker said.

He added that, with those decreases in the list of electors in specific constituencies, the EOJ had been able to 'collapse' the polling divisions, significantly reducing the number of stations to around 7,000.

Mr. Walker said that with fewer but larger polling stations, facilitating larger numbers of electors at each would be more difficult for persons to accurately determine which elector voted for a particular candidate.