Incumbent loses elections in Jamaica

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica (AFP) - Jamaica's Labour Party won Monday's elections, toppling Jamaica's first female head of government, who did not immediately concede after a tight vote marred by violence.

The JLP won by a razor-thin margin of 31-29 seats, according to election officials, snapping a string of five straight losses to the People's National Party (PNP) and will form the next government.

However, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller leader said the PNP will not immediately concede the elections, the closest since Jamaica became independent of Britain in 1962.

The threat of further violence hung over the vote after shots were reportedly fired at one polling station and after seven people were killed in suspected politically motivated attacks late Friday.

The shooting incident at a polling station in the southeast St Andrews constituency in the Kingston area forced a temporary two-hour suspension of voting in the district. No casualties were reported and voting resumed later in the afternoon after authorities deployed army troops to the area, officials said.In another shooting in the same voting district, a police patrol reportedly took fire.

Polls closed at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) Monday and results were announced before 0300 GMT Tuesday, as rains from Hurricane Felix doused the Caribbean island.

The governing People's National Party (PNP), led for the first time by a woman, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, ran neck-and-neck in the polls with the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), led by Bruce Golding.

Voters stood in long lines at polling stations with Jamaica's director of elections, Danville Walker, saying in a television interview that the electoral system was overwhelmed by the large turnout.

Voting 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."

Meanwhile, Hurricane Felix, the second hurricane in two weeks, dumped rain on the island in the late afternoon. The storm was set to bypass the country but still triggered a tropical storm warning.

Political tensions have mounted since the planned vote August 27 was postponed after Hurricane Dean ravaged the island on August 18-19, and there has 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 their opponents in the Labour party.

Labour rallied support with its focus on boosting the island's economy, tackling its national debt and fighting crime and corruption.

Simpson Miller had urged voters to return her party to power so it can complete its goal of turning Jamaica into a developed country by 2030.

The former British colony, which lies in the Caribbean off the coast of Central America, has a population of some 2.7 million with an estimated per capita income of around 3,400 dollars.

Sixty seats were up for grabs in the five-year parliament.

News of shootings and fire-bombings reached voters late in the day, after one country house in North West Clarendon was gutted by apparent arsonists, while the occupants were out of the house to vote.

Local media reported that a woman living in the house had been warned not to vote, but cast her ballot, anyway.

in other reports, seven assailants badly beat another man, and another man was chased and cut around his abdomen.

Elsewhere in Jamaica, a carnival atmosphere ruled, and members of both parties were reported celebrating the election together.