MONTEGO BAY, St James – The Peoples National Party’s (PNP) DK Duncan has confirmed that he will be filing for a magisterial recount of the ballots in eastern Hanover today where he was defeated by the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Barrington Gray by a slim margin of nine votes in Monday’s general elections.

“There is sufficient doubt in the result,” Duncan told the Observer Saturday, “That we believe that a magisterial recount could easily reverse the situation.”

Duncan, a veteran politician and former minister in the Michael Manley-led government of 1972, said he would contest the election result based on the number of rejected and other ballots in contention and on the closeness of both the preliminary and final counts.

“This is not a frivolous move just for the sake of going through the motions,” he explained. “Over 300 voters on Thursday signed the petition asking for the lawyers to pursue a magisterial recount and this will be done on Monday (today).

In his favour, Duncan said there was a significant number of ballots that were accepted from three JLP strongholds that could not be traced to any ballot box bearing the signatures of either the returning officer or any of her assistants.

“These ballots cannot be counted in the final tally,” he charged.

Additionally, he said there were other aspects of the election in the constituency that could be called into question as early as next week and would see them making the requisite petitions to the constituted authorities.

“There is no doubt in my mind that at the end of the day, which might be within another two to three weeks, the situation will be reversed from what it is at this moment,” he said Saturday.

Gray, a Hanover businessman, was declared winner of the marginal seat by the final count after preliminary figures released by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) on Monday night had him losing by 57 votes.

On Friday, Gray said he was confident that a magisterial recount would not reverse the result and expressed doubt about the source of the figures that were released on Monday night as “the result that night had been in his favour”.

Duncan, in the meantime, admitted on Saturday that the figures did favour his opponent on election night but attributed the release of the incorrect figures to glitches in the EOJ’s reporting system and problems with the final tally.

“The EOJ was the only source of information (to media houses) that night,” he said.