Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller last night conceded that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) had won Monday’s general elections, but said that the official counts, which the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) said will end tomorrow, and planned court challenges could affect the outcome of the poll.

“The People’s National Party accepts the announced preliminary results, while reserving all rights under the Jamaica constitution and our electoral laws,” Simpson Miller said in a statement.

“The determination of the constitutional issues by the court, as well as the final count in all seats could have a bearing on the outcome of this election,” Simpson Miller said, adding that the PNP “will always respect the voice of the Jamaican people and their will, as expressed in the vote”.

Simpson Miller’s acceptance of the preliminary results came hours after she was severely criticised for refusing to acknowledge the outcome of the vote Monday night, with some critics describing her as a sore loser and being “un-prime ministerial”.

Earlier yesterday, Director of Elections Danville Walker confirmed that preliminary results are now showing a 32 to 28 lead for the JLP over the PNP in the closely-fought September 3 general elections.

After a flat out electoral wrestle at the polls, Walker on Monday night told the media that an initial count had showed the JLP with 31 seats to the PNP’s 29, evoking howls of protest from several members of the PNP camp who claimed that the elections were less than above board.

However, in a statement issued yesterday, Walker said after the close of the polls on Monday, the preliminary results were in fact 32 seats for the JLP and 28 for the PNP. The latest trump was the Labour Party’s Noel Donaldson over the PNP’s Derrick Kellier for the St James Southern seat, which had initially been declared in favour of the PNP.

The director said starting yesterday final counts would be conducted by the returning officer in every constituency in the presence of candidates and/or their representatives.

Said Walker: “We expect that all final polls will be completed by Thursday night, September 6.”

He said candidates could request a magisterial recount if it was felt necessary after the final counts.

Meanwhile, the JLP has declared itself “the undisputed winner of the general elections” and has gone a little further than the Electoral Office’s declaration of its victory.

In a release to the media yesterday, party general secretary Karl Samuda said it has been confirmed that there were “tabulation errors in the East and West Hanover seats” which had been declared in favour of the PNP’s DK Duncan over the JLP’s Barrington Gray and the PNP’s Ian Hayles over the JLP’s Donovan Hamilton respectively.

The JLP has said the correction is “expected to result in at least 34 seats for the JLP” and 26 for the PNP.

Samuda also chided persons whom he said were “unwilling to accept the results of the September 3 general elections” and have been “spreading rumours that the JLP lost a seat”.

“On the contrary, the director of elections has confirmed 32 seats, and in four constituencies the party is trailing the PNP by less than 60 votes,” Samuda said.

With the final counts slated to be completed tomorrow and requests for magisterial recounts being anticipated by the EOJ because of the closeness of the elections, the country hangs in the balance as it awaits the formation of the new government and the swearing in of the Parliament, which was dissolved ahead of the elections.

But Walker is confident that neither the promised challenge in the courts of JLP candidates who were said to be improperly nominated because of alleged dual citizenship, nor requests for magisterial recounts would halt the swearing-in of a Government.

“I don’t believe that the situations regarding the constitutional matters are matters that can be settled to affect any of these things,” Walker told the Observer on Monday.

“The constitution says you have the recourse of appeal and the judgement as to whether you are qualified or disqualified or not properly nominated. You would remain that way until all your rights of appeal are exhausted,” he added.

“Today is the third of September, if you tell me that you believe all of those appeals can be exhausted before the end of September you have a different level of optimism about the alacrity and the dispatch of the justice system,” he said.

“Even if you took something to the constituted authority, that wouldn’t stop you from being sworn in”.