Jamaica Upset Calls for Recount

There was jubilation and some violence in the streets of Kingston last night as the Jamaica Labor Party  appeared to have ended the 18-year run of the incumbent People’s National Party by a margin so slim the prime minister labelled it “too close to call.” In an early count, election officials handed the challenger 31 of 60 parliament seats. A shooting recalled the 1980 elections, when violence killed nearly 900.

If the vote stands in a recount, expected to take three days, it will mark the end of the tenure of Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica's first woman prime minister, Reuters reports. Simpson Miller did not concede, and the election director said margins in several districts were “closer than razor thin.” Political analysts say there is little ideological difference between the two parties. (More Jamaica stories.)