The JLP led by Bruce Golding has squeezed out a win against the PNP led by Portia Simpson Miller. The JLP has not won the Jamaican elections since 1980, however Portia Simpson Miller has not conceded defeat citing the close margin of defeat. Portia stated "the election is too close to call".
At the end of the preliminary count, the JLP had won at least 31 seats to the People's National Party's (PNP) 29, in the closest of the country's 15 general elections since Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944. The count now stands at seven wins for the JLP and eight for the PNP.Golding, in his victory speech, said that "however perplexing some may find the results, the fact is that the people have spoken".
Speaking from what he described as a "platform of magnanimity", Golding added, "It may very well be that the people of Jamaica, in their own profound wisdom, are sending a clear message to all of us that the time has come for constructive engagement among the political forces of the country".
With such a narrow margin of victory, the official result could be days away as candidates who have lost close races,especially those from the PNP, are expected to demand recounts and perhaps mount challenges in the courts.
Director of Elections Danville Walker said the official recount begins at 9 o'clock this morning. The Electoral Office of Jamaica said yesterday's voter turnout was a modest 60.40 per cent.
Last night, Simpson Miller was unyielding. "As of now, we're conceding no victory to the Jamaica Labour Party," she declared at party headquarters. "There are a number of seats that the People's National Party will be taking action (over) and we have to complete the final count tomorrow (today), and we will be watching closely the count," she added.
With the PNP in recent weeks alleging that some members of the JLP had sworn allegiance to foreign powers which, if true, may make them ineligible to hold seats in the House of Representatives, Simpson Miller hinted that that matter could also be headed to court.
"We will pursue action in the courts on some constitutional issues," she said.
The PNP leader also accused some persons of campaigning the day before the elections, which is not allowed, and of vote buying. She told PNP supporters that "you'll hear from the leadership of the party". She said also that in some constituencies, people were barred from exercising their right to vote. "We're not going to stand by and allow criminals to decide the future of the Jamaican people," Simpson Miller said.
Her stance cast a pall of uncertainty over the results of the election which, even after the final count starting this morning, could trigger moves for magisterial recounts in close contests.
Yesterday's victory represents a gain of five seats for the JLP which grabbed 26 seats to the 34 captured by the PNP in the 2002 election which was said to be the closest in 30 years.
In fact, the JLP lost just one of those seats that it gained in 2002, that of Barrington Grayin Eastern Hanover. He was defeated by Dr. D.K. Duncan who last faced the electorate in 1980, when the JLP won a landslide victory over the PNP.
The JLP has now ended 18 years of political drought with its first victory in five attempts, with Golding receiving a mandate from voters in his first test at the polls as JLP leader.
Last night, Golding, who could be described as the 'comeback kid' who in 2005 returned to the JLP from the National Democratic Move-ment (NDM) which he had founded in 1995 after walking away from the JLP, was in an ecstatic mood.
