(29 Dec 2011)
1. Incumbent Jamaican Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, arriving at the Mona neighbourhood voting station with police
2. Mid of Holness surrounded by media crews
3. Close-up of Holness
4. Mid of woman raising arm and shouting, to laughter
5. Holness walking with police and media
6. Mid of Holness emerging from voting station with ink on finger after casting ballot
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Andrew Holness, Jamaican Prime Minister:
"What I base my assessment on is a seat by seat analysis which was scientifically done, both by sampling and by canvassing. And on both counts we are ahead and I would think that we're ahead significantly."
8. Police and media surrounding Holness beside vehicle
9. People outside a school in Kingston neighbourhood of Whitfield Town wearing orange in support of the People's National Party (PNP)
10. Mid of soldiers on street outside polling station
11. Mid of people and soldiers on street in front of photographers
12. Two men helping an elderly woman along street to polling station
13. Zoom in to Portia Simpson Miller, leader of the PNP
14. Miller meeting people outside polling station
15. Various of Miller in polling station casting vote
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Portia Simpson Miller, leader of Jamaica's People's National Party:
"I'm sure they will smile with us as God smiles on us, and that we will be victorious, I have a very good feeling."
17. Close-up of Miller's finger in ink
18. Miller in polling station
19. Mid of Miller showing ink stained finger to journalists after casting vote
STORYLINE:
Jamaicans turned out in large numbers on Thursday to cast ballots in fiercely contested national elections.
The centre-right Labor party of Jamaica's youngest Prime Minister was in a tight race against the slightly left-leaning People's National Party (PNP), headed by the island's first female leader, in a battle to win control of the government for the next five years.
Jamaican elections have turned violent in the past but there were no reports of trouble as polls opened for the 63 parliamentary races.
The vote hit some snags as fingerprint scanners meant to stop people from voting more than once worked intermittently, leading to lengthy lines at some of the roughly 6,600 polling centres in the island country.
The People's National Party has tried tapping into voter disillusionment, especially among Jamaica's many poor inhabitants, and complained of the slow voting process on Thursday.
The party also alleged that some ruling party candidates violated rules by campaigning on election day.
In the capital, Kingston, soldiers with automatic weapons guarded the two polling stations where Prime Minister Andrew Holness and opposition leader Portia Simpson Miller cast their ballots.
The two top candidates' different styles were clear while they cast their votes.
Holness, who is the country's youngest ever leader at age 39, is largely seen as unexciting, but bright and pragmatic.
He whisked into the voting centre in the middle class area of Mona, barely interacting with voters.
After being heckled by an opposition partisan, he said he believed his party was "ahead significantly," and departed after quickly taking three questions from reporters.
By contrast, the 66-year-old Miller, who had been the country's first female prime minister, hugged and chatted with supporters at a school in Whitfield Town, most of them clad in the party's orange.
There are no longer stark ideological differences between the two clan-like factions that have dominated Jamaican politics since independence from Britain in 1962.
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