EOJ says no change in election seat count expected
WITH the recount of ballots from Wednesday’s general elections more than half-way through, director of elections, Danville Walker, says that he expects no change in the seat count that will give the People’s National Party (PNP) a 10-seat majority in the new Parliament.
At the same time, the Constituted Authority, the body that has the power to halt and order re-runs of voting in constituencies, said in a report issued yesterday that there were glitches in the election substantial enough to have hampered the outcome of the elections and demanded its intervention.
Under the election laws, the Constituted Authority can halt an election in a constituency if polling stations open over five hours after the scheduled time and those stations would account for at least 25 per cent of the electors in the constituency.
It can also invoke its power in cases of natural disasters or disruptions that affected a similar percentage of voters.
In its report, the Constituted Authority said that except for one polling division at Rock Hall, in the West Rural St Andrew constituency, all polling stations opened before noon.
Voting got off late at the Rock Hall stations because of the killing nearby of seven people in what the police said were reprisals against the families of gang members.
That station accounted for 1,600 voters or about six per cent of the 26,000 registered voters in the constituency.
“Since the number of electors for those stations amounted to significantly less than 25 per cent of the electors in the constituency, the Authority concluded that there were no grounds to halt the taking of any poll by reason of polling stations not having opened,” the report said.
The Constituted Authority is chaired by Justice Rance Langrin and its members are Dennis Lalor, in his capacity as a member of the Privy Council as well as the three independent members of the Electoral Advisory Committee — Professor Errol Miller, Dorothy Pine-McLarty and Dr Herbert Thompson.
It was one of the mechanism developed in time for the 1997 general elections as part of the efforts to ensure the integrity of elections in Jamaica.
Heavy rains on election day, particularly in western Jamaica, interrupted polling in 10 constituencies. But in all the affected polling stations, voting was able to restart.
In any event, the Constituted Authority said, in all cases the number of voters who would have been affected even if no polling was possible, “was less than one per cent of the total number of electors” in the constituencies.
“In the circumstances, the Authority concluded that there had not been a natural disaster which would have substantially prevented or prejudiced the holding of fair elections in any constituency, polling division or polling station,” they said.
Just over 56 per cent of the 1.3 million registered voters cast their ballots, down on the 65 per cent of 1997 and on the 70 per cent to 75 per cent which pollsters had forecast would have voted on Wednesday. The PNP won 53 per cent of the popular vote, against 47 per cent for the JLP.
Most analysts say the bad weather, associated with a tropical storm in the northern Caribbean, as well as apathy, contributed to the low turnout.
In Wednesday’s elections the PNP, which gained 50 seats in 1997 but ended the term with 47, won 35 of the 60 seats in the legislature. The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won 25.
But electoral officials have begun a final counting of the ballots, which a statement from the Electoral Office last night quoted Walker as saying was “over 50 per cent complete.
“So far, there is nothing to indicate that there will be any change in the seat count of 35 to the People’s National Party and 25 to the Jamaica Labour Party,” the statement said.
In post-election remarks Wednesday night, JLP leader Edward Seaga, while acknowledging that the PNP had won more seats than his party, stopped short of a formal concession. He pointed to the fact that some of the constituencies in which the JLP had lost, the differences were marginal and could be subject to recounts, and even court cases.
Among the seats to which the JLP will be paying close attention will be St Ann North West where the PNP’s Arnold Bertram came through with a 156 majority over the JLP’s Verna Parchment, as well as West Portland where Errol Ennis (PNP), won by 280 against the JLP’s Kenneth Rowe.
Three of the four contests in St Elizabeth also produced razor-thin majorities: two for the PNP and one for the JLP.
In St Elizabeth South Western, Danny Buchanan, the labour minister, got an 89 majority over cane farmer, Derrick Sangster, while across the border in St Elizabeth South Eastern, the PNP’s Lenworth Blake retained his seat by 73 votes against the JLP’s Franklyn Witter.
In St Elizabeth North West, the JLP’s J C Hutchinson retained his seat by 120 votes over the PNP’s Stanley Redwood.
There were other close contests that produced narrow majorities for either side, but with a greater zone of comfort for the winning candidates.