Jamaica’s Director of Elections is among a group of persons who the law has disqualified from voting in any election. The selected Commissioners who serve on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica are also prevented by law from participating in an election.
The group includes persons of unsound mind and those who are prison for a term exceeding six months and those under the sentence of death.
An individual may also be disqualified if they are convicted for committing an election related offence.
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Persons disqualified from voting
Jamaica’s Director of Elections is among a group of persons who the law has disqualified from voting in any election. The selected Commissioners who serve on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica are also prevented by law from participating in an election.
The group includes persons of unsound mind and those who are prison for a term exceeding six months and those under the sentence of death.
An individual may also be disqualified if they are convicted for committing an election related offence.
According to the Representation of the People Act, Section 5 subsection 3
The following persons are incapable of being registered as electors and disqualified from voting at an election and shall not be so registered or vote at an election, that is to say-
(a) the Chief Electoral Officer;
(b) any person who is, under any enactment for the time being in force in Jamaica, certified to be insane or otherwise adjudged to be of unsound mind or detained as a criminal lunatic;
(c) any person who is under sentence of death imposed on him by a court in any part of the Commonwealth or is serving a sentence of imprisonment (by whatever name called) of or exceeding six months imposed on him by such a court or substituted by competent authority for some other sentence imposed on him by such a court or is under such a sentence of imprisonment the execution of which is suspended;
(d) any person who is disqualified for registration by or under any enactment for the time being in force in Jamaica because he has been convicted of any offence connected with the election of members of the House of Representatives or of any local authority or body for local purposes; and
(e) any person who is disqualified from voting by reason of his employment for pay or reward in connection with the election in the constituency in which such person would otherwise be entitled to vote:
However, a Returning Officer, under a certain condition, whether he or she is registered to vote in an election, can exercise the franchise.
Section (e) goes further to say:
Provided that at an election the person who is performing the functions of a returning officer in a constituency shall, whether registered as an elector or not, vote only where there is in that constituency an equality of votes on the final count of votes or on a recount, as in this Act provided.
With respect to the selected commissioners who serve on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ), the Electoral Commission of Jamaica Interim Act states in Section 12
The Director and selected Commissioners shall be disqualified from voting at any
(a) election of ---
(i) a member to serve in the House of Representatives or on the Council of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation or any Parish Council;
(ii) a mayor of a municipality;
(b) or referendum
The Electoral Commission of Jamaica, through the Electoral Office of Jamaica, is the body responsible for the conduct of elections in Jamaica. It comprises eight members appointed by the Governor-General; four selected commissioners, four nominated Commissioners and the Director of Elections.
