By Balford Henry, Acting News EditorTHE ELECTORAL Advisory Committee (EAC) has rejected the petition offered by the United People's Party (UPP) with the 50,000 signatures required for the party to be recognised as a political party.
The EAC has written the UPP stating: "The legal advice the committee received was that the wording did not constitute a petition and did not satisfy the requirement in Section 12(4)d."
The EAC communicated this response to the UPP on Wednesday, suggesting a form of words "that would comply with the requirements of Section 12(4)d. The committee said it had assured the party that, as soon as they had met the requirements of this sub-section of the Representation of the People Act, "the EAC would grant them recognition for the purpose of participating in the voter registration process."
Section 12(4) of the Representation of the People Act states:
"Notwithstanding that a political party fails to satisfy the requirements of subsection(1), that political party shall be entitled to appoint scrutineers pursuant thereto if-
"(a) It satisfied the Committee that one of its principal objectives as stated in its written constitution is the contesting of elections for membership to the House of Representatives;
(b) Its officers are elected at an annual meeting called for that purpose;
(c) It satisfies the Committee that it has a membership of at least five thousand persons; and
(d) It submits to the Committee a petition regarding the right of the political party to have scrutineers, signed by at least fifty thousand persons aged eighteen years or over who support the entitlement and whose ages and addresses are stated in the petition.
The EAC said that the UPP satisfied subsections (a), (b) and (c), but not (d). This was because of the wording of the petition.
The petition stated, "I agree that the United People's Party should have the support of the EOJ in their bid to contest the next general election."
It was submitted to the EOJ on August 7, but was only discussed at Wednesday's meeting. It was rejected because it did not refer to the need for the UPP to have scrutineers in the registration process.
Horace Matthews, UPP general secretary, who is in charge of the party's electoral matters, said yesterday it was unlikely that the party could meet the EAC's new requirement in time for the general election.
"It's not impossible, but it would take too much out of us," Mr. Matthews said. "We think that it is deliberate that they took three weeks to respond to the petition," he added.
Antonnette Haughton-Cardenas, the UPP leader, said the EAC's decision had hurt the party, "in a very, very serious way." "It's just unjust and oppressive," she added.
The failure to gain recognition from the EAC will mean that the UPP, unlike its opponents in the election - the Jamaica Labour Party, the National Democratic Movement and the People's National Party - will not be eligible to import duty-free motor vehicles for its campaigning and will not have scrutineers paid by the Electoral Office of Jamaica for the voter registration process.
However, the party will still be eligible to have indoor and outdoor agents, paid by the EOJ, at polling stations on Election Day, as the EOJ recognises all candidates nominated in the process.
"If they demobilize us on election day it will be difficult to get people to the polling stations," Mr. Matthews said. However, he said that the party had a contingency plan which it might have to resort to. He said that Mrs. Haughton-Cardenas was speaking with the EAC at a legal level.
