PORTMORE RESIDENTS have seemingly turned their backs on the electoral process with a significant portion of them not registered to vote in the constituencies.

Of the 131,868 adults residing in the three Portmore constituencies - South St Catherine, South East St Catherine and East Central St Catherine - only 85,785 of them are on the voters' list.

The Sunshine City's further disinterest in the political process is reflected in the voter turnout in the December 2011 general election.

In South St Catherine, the population and housing census indicates there are 54,649 persons 18 years and over living in the constituency.

47 per cent

However, only 31,429 of those residents are on the voters' list, 47 per cent of whom voted in the last general election.

But Fitz Jackson, the member of parliament for South St Catherine, said while "on the surface it may look substantial", the vast majority of Portmore residents take the political process seriously.

"The substantial majority of them are very participatory," Jackson said.

Jackson said that a number of persons who have Greater Portmore addresses were registered to vote elsewhere.

Jackson, meanwhile, has called for the Electoral Office of Jamaica to open its Portmore offices on some Saturdays to facilitate registration of voters.

"A lot of people in a dormitory community like Portmore, where the electoral office is over there and they are out of the area when the electoral process is open, it is not convenient to them. They would have to make a deliberate effort to give up doing something to register," Jackson noted.

He added: "For the same reason we had to open the tax office on Saturday to facilitate Portmore residents, the same reason we need to do it for the electoral office."