A MAGISTERIAL recount on Friday declared that Hugh Anthony Bryan, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for the Annotto Bay division in South East St. Mary, clinched victory in the local polls by two votes.
Preliminary results on the night of the July 19 Local Government elections indicated that the JLP had won the division by one vote. However, an official recount by the principal returning officer for the parish resulted in a 1,768 vote tie with Patrick White, the candidate for the People's National Party (PNP).
FLIPPING THE COIN
On Saturday, June 21, the returning officer decided the winner of the seat by the flip of a coin, which went in favour of the PNP candidate.
Mr. Bryan subsequently called for a magisterial recount, which resulted in the award of 1,767 votes to the PNP and 1,769 to the JLP.
The JLP's Bruce Golding said that during the recount the magistrate accepted three votes that were rejected during the official count. Two of those were awarded to the JLP and one to the PNP. Mr. Golding also said that one ballot that was awarded to the PNP was treated as a rejected ballot as the voter who marked that particular ballot had refused to dip his finger in the ink.
"We were able to produce evidence to convince the magistrate that the particular ballot represented a voter who, having marked the ballot, refused to dip his finger in the ink and the presiding officer quite rightly withheld the ballot and put it in the spoilt ballot envelope," Mr. Golding said.
He said by some "mistake" it was examined and treated as a rejected ballot but was still awarded to the PNP. However, the magistrate ruled that given that the voter did not dip his finger in the ink, the vote should not be counted.
