CAFFE is targeting more than 100 volunteers for the constituency where the Jamaica Labour Party's Gregory Mair and the People's National Party's Granville Vallentine will face off.

The number of volunteers to be deployed in this by-election will be more than double the number CAFFE used in the recent by-election in West Portland.

Great importance

"We are putting emphasis on this by-election for the reason that it is of great importance in the political circumstances of the present time with the Government having a fairly slim majority," Dr Lloyd Barnett, chairman of CAFFE, told journalists during a media briefing Wednesday.

"We want to ensure that the results are accepted by all to be a fair representation of the will of the people," Barnett added.

According to Caffe, it is seeking to have an observer in each of the 94 polling stations and 10 roving observers who will move across the constituency.

"As you would recognise, this is a constituency with challenging topography and we want to be visible everywhere," Barnett said.

Already, CAFFE has signed up 60 per cent of the targeted volunteers and it is appealing for more.

"We are using this medium to call those people who have volunteered before to come forward, and also to call for new volunteers," Fabian Brown, CAFFE director, told Wednesday's media briefing.

CAFFE has scheduled four training sessions, two in the Corporate Area and two in St Catherine, for the remaining weekends before the by-election.

The watch dog group has been monitoring elections in Jamaica since 1997 and CAFFE officials say they are prepared for the challenges of this by-election and any other which might be called in the near future.