LUCEA, Hanover – The People’s National Party’s Dr D K Duncan was yesterday declared winner of the Eastern Hanover seat by a thin margin of 10 votes over the Jamaica Labour Party’s Barrington Gray, following the end of the magisterial recount which began just over a month ago in the Lucea Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Duncan, a PNP member of parliament in the 1970s and who served in the Michael Manley Government as minister of mobilisation, came away with 6,068 votes to Gray’s 6,058 votes.

The win for the PNP means the seat count in the House of Representatives will be 32 for the ruling JLP and 28 for the Opposition PNP.

However, shortly after the declaration of the East Hanover seat yesterday, Gray told reporters that he was unhappy with the result and that he would be filing an election petition shortly.

“I am displeased in more ways than one,” Gray said. “I am displeased because the constitutional rights of the people who voted have not been upheld. But I know that this is not the end because I am going straight to an election petition because I am defending the rights of my people.”

Duncan said, however, that if the JLP filed an election petition he would file a counter petition because there were a number of irregularities on election day.

The seat, which was won by Gray in the 2002 general elections by a majority of 736 votes, had been the subject of weeks of legal wrangling since Duncan filed a petition for a magisterial recount challenging the tally of the September 3 elections, which saw the incumbent winning the seat by a margin of nine votes.

The petition, which cited a number of irregularities, saw the recount being repeatedly halted by legal action arising from a contention over some 60 ballots, said by Duncan’s lawyers to be invalid.

According to the lawyers, the invalidity of the ballots stemmed from the fact that they had not been signed by the presiding officers.

In response to the lawyers’ concerns, Resident Magistrate George Burton decided not to count the ballots, which had not been signed because the space provided for doing so was missing, the counterfoil having been improperly torn.

Gray’s lawyers challenged the magistrate’s decision in the appellate court, which last week dismissed their contention, giving the go-ahead for the resumption of the recount.

Gray’s legal team had consistently argued failure to count the ballots would disenfranchise several voters in the constituency.

Yesterday, as Duncan – dressed in a black suit and pin-stripped orange shirt – emerged from the courtroom following the announcement, he was greeted by several members of the PNP’s hierarchy, which included Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller, General-Secretary Donald Buchanan, members of parliament Ian Hayles and Wykeham McNeill, leader of opposition business in the Senate, A J Nicholson, and scores of jubilant supporters clad in party colours.

An elated Duncan thanked the supporters and pledged to give his constituents “quality” representation.

“The victory is theirs (constituents) and I can assure them that they will get good representation,” Duncan told the Observer.

He added that as soon as he is sworn in as member of parliament he would be making representation in a bid to address a number of social issues in the constituency. These, he said, include poor road conditions, lack of potable water and a mosquito nuisance in the Chigwell area.

Dr Duncan also thanked his legal team, led by losing PNP candidate Abe Dabdoub and included former PNP MPs Mel Brown and Trevor Ruddock and president of the Cornwall Bar Association, Clayton Morgan.

Simpson Miller, in congratulating Duncan on his victory, said she was pleased that the constituency would finally get a representative.

“I just want to congratulate Dr Duncan on a well-deserved victory,” said the PNP president. “I am very, very happy that it is finally over and that the people will now have someone in Parliament to represent them,” she added.

Up to late yesterday, party supporters in the constituency were still celebrating Duncan’s victory.