The ruling People's National Party of Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has won the Jamaican General Election by a landslide margin in Jamaica's 60-seat Parliament.

The PNP had won 33 seats in the 60-member parliament compared to six for the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) by just after 0330 GMT on Friday.

Observers in Jamaica estimate that the PNP will end up with 50 seats to the JLP's 10.

There was no immediate comment from Patterson, whose PNP thus won an unprecedented third consecutive term of up to five years in power.

The loser - Jamaica Labour Party leader, Edward Seaga

Among its victories, the ruling party snatched the constituency of West Central St. Catherine, located about 20 miles north-west of Kingston, from the JLP for the first time since Jamaica's first elections in 1944.

Voting on Thursday in the former British colony was marred by delays and confusion but Jamaicans were largely spared the violence of previous balloting on the Caribbean island.

By the time the polls closed and vote counting began at 2200 GMT, one person had been killed and four wounded in apparent election-related incidents, according to witnesses and media reports.

Police in St. Catherine making sure the election was relatively free of violence

Authorities said violence was sporadic in comparison to past election campaigns.

Late arrival of ballots led electoral officials to delay voting in many areas. Some people had trouble finding their names on voters' lists or determining where they were supposed to vote.

Patterson admitted that problems had occurred but said the electoral office and security forces had the situation under control.

"We usually have some hiccups on every election day," he said. "This is perhaps not worse than any previous election."

Political killings have been common in Jamaican election campaigns during the past 30 years. In the bloodiest, in 1980, more than 800 people were killed during the campaigning and voting period, in violence mainly stemming from the political loyalties of drug gangs.

But according to BBC correspondent Malcolm Brabant, violence at this election has, in part, been stemmed by the performance of the nations soccer team, the Reggae Boyz, in qualifying for the World Cup and helping to unify the country.

The Jamaican people have endorsed Mr Patterson but with 925 murders committed last year and unemployment running at 16%, and growing, the PNP have their work cut out to turn Jamaica's economic fortunes around.
 

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