The Jamaican prime minister is refusing to concede defeat in Monday's elections, alleging irregularities.
But pressure on Portia Simpson Miller to acknowledge the opposition's win is mounting after international observers called the polls "professional and transparent".
The opposition Jamaica Labour party (JLP) appeared to have won a slim majority in the elections, getting 32 of 60 seats in the House of Representatives in preliminary results.
Simpson Miller said her People's National party could win enough close races in the final count to take more than the 28 seats the Electoral Commission has attributed to it.
Complaints
On Monday night, Simpson Miller alleged some candidates campaigned beyond the cut-off point mandated by election rules and that some members of her party were prevented from voting.
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Supporters of the JLP have started
celebrating [Reuters] |
"We're not going to stand by and allow people to use criminals to decide the future of the Jamaican people," said the 61-year-old whose party is seeking to extend its nearly 20 years in power.
Her party's general-secretary, Danny Buchanan, also alleged that some opposition candidates held US citizenship, which he said would be illegal for a member of parliament under Jamaican law.
But a statement from the Washington-based Organisation of American States said voters could find their names on the rolls "almost without exception" and praised Jamaica for holding the vote in a "professional and transparent manner".
The final count typically takes about two days as election officers in each of the 60 precincts review the ballots, according to Jamaica's Electoral Commission.
Simpson Miller, the country's first woman prime minister, was once wildly popular but saw her support wane amid complaints she responded poorly to Hurricane Dean two weeks ago and a perception that she did not fare well in a debate with Bruce Golding, the Labour party leader.