The main opposition Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) won a close election ousting the Caribbean nation's first woman prime minister, according to preliminary results.
But Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller refused to concede defeat after officials said the JLP won 31 out of 60 parliament seats in Monday's election, against 29 for her People's National Party (PNP).
Sporadic violence marred the vote which also went ahead amid a tropical storm warning as Hurricane Felix passed by.
Simpson Miller said the PNP would call for recounts and that at least three PNP candidates would file legal challenges accusing their rivals of being ineligible because they hold dual US-Jamaican citizenship.
"We are conceding no victory to the Jamaica Labour Party," said Simpson Miller, who became prime minister in March 2006, succeeding P.J. Patterson who stepped down after 14 years in power.
The apparent victory of the JLP led by Bruce Golding would end a streak of five straight defeats for the party.
Shots were reportedly fired at one polling station adding to tensions after seven people were killed in suspected politically motivated attacks on Friday.
The shooting at a polling station in the St Andrews constituency of the capital Kingston area forced a two-hour suspension of voting in the district.
No casualties were reported and voting resumed after authorities deployed troops to the area, officials said.
A police patrol also came under fire in the same district.
Voters stood in long lines at polling stations and Jamaica's director of elections, Danville Walker, said the electoral system was overwhelmed by the large turnout.
Delays were aggravated by flawed registration lists at some polling stations that did not include all voters' names and a lack of electricity on some parts of the island hit hard by Hurricane Dean last month.
One voter, Lennox Garfield Rodney, expressed frustration with the long wait.
"The voting system is too slow," Rodney said. "They can't have working people standing up and waiting so long in the sun."
Hurricane Felix, the second hurricane in two weeks, dumped rain on the island in the late afternoon. The storm bypassed the country but still triggered a tropical storm warning.
Political tensions had mounted since the planned vote Aug. 27 was postponed after Hurricane Dean ravaged the island on Aug. 18-19, and there had been a surge of politically motivated shootings and fights.
Simpson Miller's PNP alleged the shooting at the Kingston polling station was carried out by Labour party opponents.
The latest batch from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s e-mails illustrates the extraordinary scope of his contacts with powerful people, ranging from a top Trump adviser to Britain’s ex-prince Andrew. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on trying to force release of evidence gathered on Epstein by law enforcement over the years — including the identities of the men suspected of participating in his alleged sex trafficking ring. However, a slew of e-mails released this week have already opened new windows to the extent of Epstein’s network. These include multiple references to US President Donald
CHARGES: The former president, who maintains his innocence, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for a failed coup bid, as well as an assassination plot Far-right former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options to avoid prison, after judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections and was convicted in September for his efforts to prevent Brazlian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power after the polls. Prosecutors said the scheme — which included plans to assassinate Lula and a top Brazilian Supreme Court judge — failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass. A panel of Supreme Court judges weighing Bolsonaro’s appeal all voted to uphold
Chinese tech giant Alibaba yesterday denied it helps Beijing target the US, saying that a recent news report was “completely false.” The Financial Times yesterday reported that Alibaba “provides tech support for Chinese military ‘operations’ against [US] targets,” a White House memo provided to the newspaper showed. Alibaba hands customer data, including “IP addresses, WiFi information and payment records,” to Chinese authorities and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the report cited the memo as saying. The Financial Times said it could not independently verify the claims, adding that the White House believes the actions threaten US security. An Alibaba Group spokesperson said “the assertions
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
RSS