Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

Jamaica holds a parliamentary election on Monday, September 3, 2007. The vote, originally scheduled for last August 27, was postponed after the country was severely affected two weeks ago by Hurricane Dean, which passed just south of the Caribbean island nation with devastating 145 mph (230 km/h) winds.

In tomorrow's poll, Jamaican voters will be choosing members of the lower chamber of Parliament, the sixty-seat House of Representatives, in single-member constituencies under the first-past-the-post method used for elections to the House of Commons in both the United Kingdom and Canada. Like both of these countries, Jamaica is a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K. as head of state (represented by a Governor-General) and a parliamentary system of government headed by a prime minister, who is usually the leader of the largest party in the House of Representatives.

Since the introduction of universal suffrage in 1944, Jamaican politics have been dominated by two major parties, the left-of-center People's National Party (PNP) and the somewhat more conservative Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Both parties have alternated in power since the country won independence from the U.K. in 1962. The JLP held office from 1962 to 1972 and from 1980 to 1989, when the PNP, which ruled Jamaica from 1972 to 1980, was returned to power in a landslide victory under the leadership of former Prime Minister Michael Manley, son of party founder Norman Manley.

After Manley retired from politics in 1992, Percival J. Patterson succeeded him as head of government, leading the PNP to further landslide victories in 1993 and 1997. The PNP scored a fourth consecutive victory in the October 2002 general election, but the outcome was much closer than in the previous three elections, with the PNP winning thirty-four seats to the JLP's twenty-six. The popular vote was even closer: the PNP polled 396,590 votes (52.1%) and the JLP 360,718 (47.4%), while independent and minor-party candidates received 4,057 votes (0.5%).

In 2006, Prime Minister Patterson stepped down from office; Portia Simpson Miller succeeded Patterson as both party leader and head of government, becoming Jamaica's first-ever female premier.

Update

Live election results are now available on Jamaica Elections 2007.