Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) has called for a Magisterial recount of the results posted for the Annotto Bay division of St. Mary. The call was made after Labour Party candidate, Hugh Anthony Bryan, lost his grip on the seat "by the flip of a coin" on Friday.
Speaking to The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, Mr. Bryan said, "At the preliminary count we led by one. But then at the recount yesterday (Friday) it was a tie. That's when the returning officer decided to flip a coin that gave it to the PNP."
ALLOWANCES
Despite the apparently arbitrary manner in which the matter was decided, Director of Elections, Danville Walker, explained to The Sunday Gleaner that allowances are made, by law, for such action to be taken.
"What the law requires when that happens is that the returning officer cast the deciding ballot," he said in reference to the Representation of the People Act, Section 45 (8).
The Act states, "Whenever on such final count of votes, an equality of votes is found to exist between any two or more candidates and an additional vote would entitle one of such candidates to be declared elected, the returning officer shall give such additional vote."
Mr. Walker, pointing out the danger of asking a returning officer to decide on the final vote (and possibly having him labelled a supporter of either party), said the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) had advised that a coin be used to decide on what that vote would be.
DISCREPANCY
Meanwhile, he also touched on the discrepancy between the initial result, which had Mr. Bryan winning by one vote, and the later result which had him tied with the People's National Party's (PNP) eventual winning candidate, Patrick White. The EOJ head explained that the first count of votes is made under the watch of the presiding officer, whose duty it is to reject all ballots inconsistent with the requirements of Section 44 (2) of the Act. The Act states that those are ballots "which have not been supplied by him", "which have not been marked by any candidate", "on which votes have been given for more than one candidate", or "upon which there is any writing or mark by which the voter could be identified".
However, during the subsequent count, each ballot is taken from its ballot box and re-examined by the returning officer who may then overrule the presiding officer's decisions. After that count, Mr. Walker stated, a candidate can always, if he feels some ballots should or should not have been rejected, ask for a Magisterial recount. That recount would be made by the Resident Magistrate of the parish for which the election was declared, and would entail further scrutiny of the ballots.
AFTER OUR FINAL COUNT
"After our final count, the candidate has four days to do so," he said, adding that he expected a number of candidates to make such requests because of the tight nature of the vote in some divisions.
"We are confident that we will win at the Magisterial recount," Mr. Bryan said yesterday.
The Sunday Gleaner was unable to reach Mr. White for comment.
