Jamaica's leading opposition People's National Party has won a landslide election, according to preliminary results, in a vote driven by concerns about crime, corruption and poverty.

The preliminary results indicated the left-leaning party had won 41 out of 63 constituencies, giving it a resounding majority and showing the door to prime minister Andrew Holness, 39, the youngest person to hold the top office.

The results were released late on Thursday (local time), but within hours of polls closing local media had called the PNP's victory, and leader Portia Simpson Miller, the designated prime minister, delivered an ecstatic acceptance speech.

"You will know everything. We will never hide anything from you. Now you have a government you can trust," she told jubilant supporters.

Ms Miller, who became the first woman prime minister in 2006 but narrowly lost a re-election bid the next year, promised a "partnership with you, the Jamaican people, a partnership with the private sector, the media and civil society".

She said Mr Holness, of the centre-right Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), had called earlier to concede defeat and offer his congratulations, describing his mood as "gracious".

Monitors reported long lines of voters in some districts, mainly due to technical problems with the voting machines, but Thursday's elections did not see the violence that had marred previous votes.

Mr Holness assumed office on October 23 when Bruce Golding stepped down under pressure.

Mr Golding, who led the JLP to victory in 2007 and ended 17 straight years of PNP rule, resigned in the political fallout from the government's fight against the extradition to the United States of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, reportedly the former leader of the Shower Posse, a JLP-tied gang.

When authorities moved on some of Kingston's poorest and most crime-ridden areas in May 2010, a massive operation left 76 Jamaicans dead. The gang's link to the JLP has hurt its sway in poor areas still traumatised by the incident.

AFP