Bartlett happy with resignation of EOJ officers

BY HORACE HINES Observer staff reporter hinesh@jamaicaobserver.com

Thursday, February 09, 2012

MONTEGO BAY, St James — East Central St James Member of Parliament Edmund Bartlett has welcomed the resignation of the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) officers who presided over voting activities in his constituency on December 22.

"It is a positive move by ECJ but it is a first step as no stones should be left unturned in ferreting out those responsible for this grievous assault on our democratic process," Bartlett told the Observer yesterday

"The right to choice is the most sacred of our democratic right and the institution. The guardians of this institution must be, in every respect, above reproach. We have toiled too long to achieve a system that is recognised globally as being of a very high standard and of integrity. Nothing should erode that achievement," he argued.

In a statement late Tuesday, Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) Chairman Professor Errol Miller said that the both the returning officer and assistant returning officer of the constituency had tendered their resignation to facilitate the commission's probe into 162 spoilt ballots believed to be cast by election day workers on December 22 ahead of the December 29 poll.

In addition, Prof Miller instructed the director of elections not to deploy election day workers who served in East Central St James.

Miller explained that the ballot box from Polling Station 50 in the constituency contained a total of 455 ballots — 386 of which were cast by election day workers and the remaining 69 by persons who voted on December 29.

An Prof Miller's statement confirmed that the vast majority of 162 rejected ballots were cast by election day workers "who are among the most knowledgeable and proficient electors".

The ECJ head said that "reports from observers, of both the final count and the magisterial recount, are that the ballots were rejected for several reasons, including being marked for more than one candidate, or for having additional markings that are prohibited by the Representation of the People Act".

"This raises questions that, in one way or another, could undermine the integrity of the electoral process if they are not answered definitively and acted upon appropriately and decisively," Prof Miller argued.

Yesterday, Bartlett who maintained that the rejected ballots were for his Jamaica Labour Party, called for the ECJ to conduct a more intense probe into the matter.

"I expect that the investigation should go further to determine what was the motivation behind the tampering and who was responsible — as to what role the other side played in it because we (JLP) certainly were not the beneficiaries," Bartlett alleged.

"We got none of the election day workers votes while the PNP got 224, because all 162 were rejected,"

he argued.

Bartlett edged the People's National Party's Cedric Stewart by just under 200 votes in the preliminary count on December 29. He retained the seat after a magisterial recount held at the St James Resident Magistrate's Court in Cambridge.

Following the conclusion of the magisterial recount, the ECJ chairman instructed the director of elections to conduct an investigation into the matter.

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Bartlett happy with resignation of EOJ officers