FORMER People’s National Party (PNP) Cabinet minister Dr D K Duncan yesterday suffered setbacks to his chances of returning to Parliament from both the Constituted Authority and the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Judge Marva McIntosh made an about-turn by allowing lawyers for Duncan’s Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) opponent, Barrington Gray, to apply to her to allow a Full Court hearing of their application to reverse the decision of Resident Magistrate George Burton to reject ballots understood to be torn by presiding officers.

Yesterday, it also emerged that Duncan was among five candidates who failed to convince the Constituted Authority to void polling in their constituencies.

The five candidates had lost in the September 3 general elections on the basis of the final counts.

The others were Patrick Roberts (PNP), West Central St Andrew; Joel Williams (JLP), South Western Clarendon; Joan Gordon-Webley (JLP), South Eastern St Andrew; and Sally Porteous (JLP), Central Manchester.

But while Duncan’s failure to get the Authority to void the polling in Eastern Hanover may have been predictable, the decision of Justice McIntosh to grant a stay of the magisterial recount until tomorrow delayed his possible return to Gordon House today.

Lawyers for Gray, the former MP, are maintaining that RM Burton was “proceeding on an unlawful basis” when he accepted a number of ballots from some boxes, with the counterfoil torn off, on a particular day and rejected similar ballots on a next occasion.

The votes were previously counted by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), based on advice from the solicitor-general.

This resulted in Gray being awarded the seat by nine votes. The boxes are numbered 3, 35, 42a, 43, 71, 72 and 81.

The announcement of the stay came as the magistrate was about to declare a winner yesterday. The in-chambers hearing is slated to start today in the Supreme Court.

Yesterday, the Constituted Authority, which rules on applications to void polls, did not say to what extent the five candidates wanted the elections in their respective constituencies declared invalid. However, it said that “almost all” the applications, were filed under Section 37(c) of the Election Petitions Act which states:

“That a presiding officer has, under duress, signed ballots and that the number of ballots so signed is sufficient to cast doubt on the majority of votes counted for the candidate declared elected.”

The Authority rejected outright the applications from both Duncan and Roberts because they failed to furnish the required affidavits on which a decision to proceed or not would have been based.

However, the Authority said that they caused investigations, including statements from witnesses, to be conducted in the other three cases. But those were also turned down, eventually, for various reasons.

In terms of South Western Clarendon, the Authority said that Williams’ allegations were “largely unsubstantiated”.

For South Eastern St Andrew, the verdict was that the irregularities complained of “did not rise to such a level as would lead to a substantial distortion or subversion of the process of free and fair election”.

And in relation to Central Manchester, the Authority said that after “exhaustive investigations” into Porteous’ allegations, they found that the incidents of irregularities “did not rise to such a level as would lead to a substantial distortion or subversion of the process of free and fair elections in the constituency”.

“Accordingly, the Constituted Authority did not, whether on its own motion or at the request of any of the candidates, determine that any application ought to be made to the Election Court with a view to voiding the taking of polls within a polling station, polling division or constituency.”

The Authority was comprised of Justice Rance Langrin, chairman; Dennis Lalor; Professor Errol Miller; Dr Herbert Thompson; Dorothy Pine-McLarty; and Justice Clarence Walker.