Polls open as Jamaicans vote in close election

KINGSTON, Sep 3 (Reuters) A handful of voters lined up early today when polls opened for Jamaica's national elections as the Caribbean island heals from one hurricane, warily eyes another and frets over recent political violence.

Dawn brought clear skies to the capital, Kingston, but forecasters warned of a good chance of rain from ferocious Hurricane Felix, passing more than 200 miles (329 km) to the south. The island was under a tropical storm watch for an election already 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 broadcast pleas late yesterday evening from Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and other officials concerned about the spate of killings in a nation 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.'' Simpson Miller's People's National Party sought a record fifth consecutive five-year term but the latest polls showed the opposition Jamaica Labour Party surging.

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.

''The PNP all the way. We need Portia to continue the progress,'' said John Hewitt, a ruling party supporter at the same polling station.

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

Simpson Miller replaced longtime Prime Minister PJ 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 over the past five years, and a murder rate averaging 1,200 per year, to forge gains in the polls.

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 Sunday'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.

Parts of the verdant, mountainous island remained without electricity after Dean ravaged Jamaica on August 19, killing five people, tearing apart coastal homes and destroying 90 per cent of the banana crop.

Albert Ramdin, head of the Organization of American States' election observer mission, said elections officials had restored most of the hurricane-damaged polling stations and relocated nine that could not be repaired in time.

REUTERS SYU KP1831