KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica’s two main political parties have agreed to participate in three debates ahead of the September 3 general election, the chairman of the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC), Brian Schmidt, has said.
He said that an agreement had been reached between the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP) and that the JDC had proposed possible dates for the debates to the two parties.
He stated that the PNP has already responded, and the JDC is awaiting a reply from the ruling party. Once the dates are agreed upon, they will be shared with the general public.
Meanwhile, the Director of Elections, Glasspole Brown, said that the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is in full preparation mode for the staging of both the general election and the local government by-elections to be held on the same day.
“Our preparation is in an advanced stage, and when we complete the final preparation, then at that point I would say we are fully prepared and it should not be a major issue for us to execute,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer newspaper, adding that the EOJ had already started recruiting election day workers and confirming the venues for polling stations.
“Now that the prime minister has made the announcement, we then move into another phase …and that phase would include the printing of the ballots, which won’t start until after Nomination Day, because we don’t know which candidates are selected yet.
“And then finalising the Election Day workers’ list, finalising the arrangement for the polling station, nomination centres, all of that. That’s the phase now that we are in preparation,” said Brown.
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