Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter

Dr Peter Phillips votes under the watchful eyes of Electoral Office of Jamaica personnel. - photos by Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

VOTING IN the special delegates election to select a president and four vice-presidents for the People's National Party (PNP) ended before the 2 p.m. deadline yesterday at the National Arena without any major incident.

The electoral machinery, which presided over the elections, carried out its job effectively, as up to late in the day, there were no serious objections to the process from either the Portia Simpson Miller Team PNP or the Peter Phillips Arise and Renew camp.

Portia Simpson Miller votes during the PNP's special delegates election at the National Stadium yesterday.

Registration and voting started at about 8:30 a.m. for Team PNP, and 9:30 a.m. for Arise and Shine, with more than 300 delegates forming queues to register their crucial vote. One hour later, the number of delegates in the National Arena had swelled to more than 1,000.

A vigilant director of elections of the PNP's internal elections, Noel Monteith, was exuding confidence that the process had gone well, without any major glitches.

no complaints

"Comrades have conducted themselves well and we have gone through all the processes and we have not had any complaints lodged, that I am aware of, and so I am satisfied that the day's voting went along well," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Delegates from the Arise and Renew camp arrived early at the arena and seemed to have fast-tracked their voting by urging delegates to complete registration quickly and to put their mark in support of Phillips.

Team PNP, which got off to a slow start, revved up its organisational machinery and later managed to get its supporters into the arena to poll their votes.

Chairman of the PNP, Bobby Pickersgill gave the Electoral Office of Jamaica and the secretariat 9.5 out of 10 for the efficient manner in which they managed the process.

"We tried to dot every 'I' and cross every 'T'," Pickersgill told The Sunday Gleaner, noting that the party had learned from the last presidential race and had improved on it.

"No altercations, physically or otherwise, and the campaign teams are geographically well separated," he added.

However, there were tense moments late in the afternoon when a man sporting a Team PNP T-shirt took a T-shirt with the picture of presidential challenger Peter Phillips and placed it in the road and began to tread on it. A supporter of Phillips quickly rushed to pick up the T-shirt and a stand-off ensued. However, tempers were cooled after the Arise and Renew supporter said: "I refuse to go down that road with them."

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com