EOJ To Distribute Voter Cards
The Gleaner
January 1 2002
THE ELECTORAL Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will in mid-January, begin the distribution of about 250,000 voter identification cards left over from the 1997 voter registration exercise.
While more than one million ID cards have already been picked up at fixed centres across the island, more than a quarter of a million have remained uncollected, despite the EOJ's pleas for persons to do so.
Neville Graham, the EOJ's information officer, said roughly 600 workers have already been employed to undertake the task in the 60 constituencies. Each worker will be paid $25 for each card delivered. The recipient of the ID card will be required to sign a form indicating receipt of the card. The process will be monitored by scrutineers from the various political parties.
Both the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) and the EOJ have for sometime taken the decision to distribute the cards house-to-house. However, the process was held up because of a lack of funding.
In November, Cabinet an-nounced the approval of an additional $127.7 million for the EOJ's 2001/2002 budget. Of the amount, $20 million was set aside for the distribution of ID cards.
Director of Elections, Danville Walker, told The Gleaner in November that the task would be undertaken in three months or until the process was completed.