By Lynford Simpson, Staff ReporterTHE CONSTITUTED Authority, which has the power to void elections in constituencies where malpractices are deemed to have taken place during an election, now has its full complement of members with the appointment last week of Dennis Lalor and Justice Ransford Langrin.
This brings to five, the number of persons who sit on the Authority, the others being the selected members of the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC). They are EAC chairman, Professor Errol Miller, Dr. Herbert Thompson and Dorothy Pine-McLarty.
With tomorrow's General Election expected to be close, according to public opinion polls, special attention will be paid to constituencies displaying garrison-like tendencies, Danville Walker, Director of Elections, has said. He has warned that the Authority would not hesitate to void the election in any constituency where malpractices occurred.
Where voter irregularity is identified in any constituency, the Authority is vested with the powers to halt the proceedings and hold fresh elections.
Based on recent amendments to the electoral laws, the time within which a candidate may make an application to the Constituted Authority after the taking of a poll has been extended and the evidence may be supplied by affidavit. Candidates now have 14 days, up from seven to file their affidavits, while the Authority has 28 days to bring a motion before the Election Court. The judge may vary the time.
Under the Elections Petition Act, applications for the voiding of the taking of a poll, as far as is practicable, shall commence within 60 days after filing; and the Election Court now has the power to extend by three days, the time for the filing of an application where the circumstances merit.
The St. Andrew West Central seat, where the Jamaica Labour Party's Andrew Holness is the incumbent Member of Parliament, was voided after the December, 1997 election. This after Mr. Holness was originally declared the winner. However, his challenger, Dr. Warren Blake of the People's National Party, complained of voter irregularity in a number of polling divisions and a retake of the poll was ordered by the Election Court.
