Jamaican election postponed as authorities assess storm damage

Jamaica's Electoral Commission today postponed the nation's August 27 general elections until an assessment of damage from Hurricane Dean is completed.

Dean lashed Jamaica on Sunday, causing extensive damage to the eastern region and sections of the capital.

Errol Miller, chairman of the Electoral Commission, said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Bruce Golding, leader of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party, have been advised of the postponement.

The election will mark the first time that Simpson Miller, Jamaica's first female prime minister, faces a test for leadership of this Caribbean nation at the polls.

She became prime minister last year after beating three opponents to take over leadership of the ruling People's National Party from then prime minister PJ Patterson, who had led Jamaica for the previous 14 years.

Roofless houses, downed power lines, shredded trees and minor flooding mar Jamaica's landscape after the hurricane tore through. But the eye of the storm passed to the south, over the Caribbean, sparing Jamaica from worse destruction.

"It is not as bad as we would have expected given the magnitude of the hurricane,'' said Krechet Douglas-Greaves, a spokeswoman for the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

Police said the storm caused two deaths: An elderly man killed when his house collapsed in the hills of St. Andrew parish and a man who died after he was struck by flying debris in Trelawny parish.

Today about 6,445 people remained at 268 shelters across Jamaica, Douglas-Greaves said.

The airport in the north-western resort city of Montego Bay reopened on Monday, and Kingston's airport was expected to resume full operations today.