Allowing voting from places such as hospitals and nursing homes is among the options the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) will be weighing as it grapples with increasing apathy among Jamaican electors.
Fewer than 48 per cent of registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in the February 25 general election, leaving many expressing alarm about a possible weakening of Jamaica’s democracy.
A closer look at the statistics also reveals that there are almost one million more persons on the voters’ list today than the number of people registered in 1980.
However, despite this huge difference, only about 10,000 more people voted in the recent general election than voted in the 1980 poll.