#JAVOTES2024 | Filthy state of community nudges St Thomas elderly to vote

A 71-year-old woman who was among the first to cast a ballot at the Yallahs Primary School in St Thomas said the filthy state of her community is what nudged her to vote.

“You see the place, you see how it nasty and stay,” she said pointing to a drain congested with debris.

“There is a river that I have to cross to go a my yard and a bare debris. It no clean,” she added, asking that her name not be published.

In the meantime, voting has been largely slow and uneventful across the ten divisions in St Thomas.

The governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is seeking to regain control of the St Thomas Municipal Corporation (StMC) from the People's National Party (PNP).

The JLP had control of the municipality after the 2016 local government elections, but lost it in 2022 following the death of Lenworth Rawle, former deputy mayor for the parish and councillor for the Trinityville division.

The JLP already has control of the two parliamentary constituencies in the parish, St Thomas Western and St Thomas Eastern.

At Seaforth Primary School and the Social Development Commission office in Morant Bay, some electors complained about long wait-time to cast their ballots.

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