By Roy Sanford, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
IF THE Maroon Council does not complete the vetting and ratification of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EoJ) prepared voters list by this weekend, the much-anticipated election for a new colonel of the Accompong Maroons, which is slated for next Tuesday, might not go ahead as planned.
"I cannot guarantee that the list will be ready for the elections," said Ferron Williams, a spokesperson for the Maroon Council, in an interview with The Gleaner on Tuesday. "If the list is not ready, the elections just cannot go ahead."
The voters list, which was compiled in the first two weeks of March by the EoJ, ran into problems last Wednesday when EoJ officials met with the three individuals vying for the position of colonel. In what was a stormy meeting, concerns were raised about the accuracy of the voters list, prompting the EoJ to send the list to the Maroon Council (an advisory body) for verification.
However, with the Maroon Council seemingly having difficulty in completing the verification and returning the voters list to the EoJ in the limited time left before Tuesday's planned election, it seems a same bet to assume that the elections will have to be called off.
"Unless we receive the list from the Maroon Council we cannot set the final machinery in place for the elections," said Earl Simpson, the assistant field manager for the EoJ. "We cannot say much more about the issue at this time as we too will have to wait and see what will eventually happen."
AGREEMENT
Former Colonel Meridie Rowe, who is again seeking to become colonel, was the first person to challenge the accuracy of the voters list. In explaining the difficulty he had with the list, he said the EoJ was guilty of backtracking on an agreement, which was reached in regards to what names should appear on the list.
"We all agreed that if someone appears on the list whom we are not sure is a Maroon, we the contenders should vote and unanimously agree whether that person should stay on the list," Mr. Rowe explained. "However, on Wednesday (March 24) when we met to do this, Mr. Simpson blatantly failed to follow this agreement and subsequently walked out of the meeting."
However, in denying Mr. Rowe's allegations, Mr. Simpson said that when the meeting was being held, some persons turned up whom he had never seen before, claiming that they were prospective candidate in the race for colonel. He said that because of their disruptive behaviour, he was forced to leave.
The campaign leading up the involvement of the EoJ was riddled with charges and counter-charges by both the incumbent Sydney Peddie and Mr. Rowe in regards to what electoral procedures that should be followed in the election.
