No violence as Jamaicans cast votes

KINGSTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) Jamaicans cast their votes for a new government today in what was expected to be a close election held under a tropical storm alert for Hurricane Felix to the south and concerns about recent political violence.

Pre-election polls indicated a narrow victory for the opposition Jamaica Labour Party, which would end more than 18 years in power for the People's National Party.

Party workers wearing the bright orange T-shirts and headbands of the ruling PNP or the green of the JLP milled about a Kingston polling station at the Jamaica Scuba Diving Club. Voters emerged wiping from their fingers the purple ink designed to prevent them from voting twice.

''It's a little slow this morning but the lines are moving,'' said Mary Sorum, 66, a PNP supporter. ''Nobody's carrying on, everything peaceful.'' Police and election observers said there were no early reports of violence at polling stations.

''All reports we are getting is that the opening of polls went relatively well. There were some minor glitches but we feel it went relatively orderly,'' said Albert Ramdin, head of the Organization of American States' observer mission.

Dawn brought clear skies to the capital, Kingston, but forecasters warned of a good chance of rain from ferocious Felix, a top-rated Category 5 storm, passing more than 200 miles (329 km) to the south of the Caribbean island. The election had already been delayed a week by the passage of Hurricane Dean 15 days ago.

But the attention of Jamaica's 2.8 million people was less on the weather than political violence after seven people were killed by gunmen on Saturday and another three yesterday, grim reminders of Jamaica's history of election bloodshed.

National television aired pleas late yesterday from Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and other officials concerned about the spate of killings in a country with one of the world's highest murder rates.

''Please obey the law to the letter. Do not allow yourself to be provoked into anger,'' Simpson Miller said. ''To anyone who might have violent intentions, I say think again. ... I encourage you to put down your weapons of war.'' A poll published in the Jamaica Observer newspaper yesterday had the JLP ahead by 9 percentage points, while an analysis by the Sunday Gleaner had the JLP winning at least 32 of the 60 parliamentary seats at stake.

About 1.3 million Jamaicans are eligible to vote.

SHOOTING DEATHS ''I am voting for the JLP. This country needs a change and we will get that change today,'' said Jennifer Somers, who lined up early outside a polling station north of the capital.

Both parties have new leaders since the last election in 2002.

Simpson Miller replaced longtime Prime Minister P J Patterson, while veteran politician Bruce Golding took over the JLP when Edward Seaga, a former prime minister, stepped down as party leader after three decades.

Golding has played on Jamaica's high unemployment rate of 9 per cent, slow economic growth of between 2 and 2.5 per cent, and a murder rate averaging 1,200 per year.

Police blamed Saturday's killings on Jamaica's highly partisan politics, which gave birth decades ago to ''garrison'' communities, a unique system of power and intimidation.

Police said they were not sure about the motive for yesterday's shooting deaths of three men at a grocery store in a Kingston neighborhood known for supporting the JLP, but residents said the gunmen came from a nearby PNP stronghold.

The garrisons were created in the 1970s when the two major parties armed local political bosses, who through threats, intimidation and patronage delivered 100 per cent of a neighborhood's vote to the sponsoring party.

''We still have garrison constituencies. Some of the dons are running things even from jail,'' said one PNP supporter in Kingston who asked not to be named. ''I am afraid for tomorrow. I'm afraid if the PNP wins the JLP will explode.'' Parts of the verdant Caribbean island remained without power after Dean ravaged Jamaica on August 19, killing five people, tearing apart coastal homes and destroying 90 per cent of the banana crop.

REUTERS PY KN2228