By Michael McLean, Gleaner WriterSANTA CRUZ, St. Elizabeth:
THE NOMINATION day exercise for the April 6 Accompong Maroon election, which was scheduled for Monday, March 29 in Accompong Village, St. Elizabeth, did not get on the way as planned, Sydney Peddie told The Gleaner.
According to Mr. Peddie, there were some discrepancies over names which should have been remove from the voter's list, which up until Monday were not removed.
The Colonel said there were 33 names on the Accompong list and 66 on the list from the Garland community that should be deleted. He said by Tuesday evening, the process should be completed for the candidates to sign the nomination papers.
Some 1,500 Maroons in St. Elizabeth, Montego Bay and Kingston are registered to vote on April 6.
The candidate running for the leadership of the Maroon council are former colonel Meribie Rowe, abeng blower Ralston Reid, Junior Solmon and the incumbent Mr. Peddie.
ELECTION
The Maroon election, which is held every five years has been delayed because of meetings with the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) to set a date for the election, and changes to the Maroon's constitution.
In early February this year, concerns were raised whether the elections would be held after the incumbent, who is confident of retaining the top position for a second term, had indicated that he would be seeking a constitutional amendment to have all voting done in the Maroon community.
STRONGLY OPPOSED
This was strongly opposed by former colonel Meribie Rowe. On that occasion, Mr. Rowe told The Gleaner that if all the voting is done in Accompong it would deny hundreds of maroons their rights to participate in the running of the Maroon council.
The EOJ had earlier signed off on a system for voting to take place at nine polling stations at Accompong, Whitehall, Elderslie, Aberdeen, Windsor, Cederspring and Garland in St. Elizabeth, and Montego Bay and Kingston.
