SANDY BAY, Hanover — A sudden swift shower of rain just after the close of voting at 5:00 pm did little to dampen the spirits of voters in the Eastern Hanover constituency Thursday afternoon.

Supporters of both parties were forced to wait until well after most of the 63 constituencies were declared before they got a final tally as three boxes from the Lethe and Copse areas were late in arriving.

By then, however, news of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) massive victory in the preliminary count had spread and the orange-clad supporters were already celebrating wildly on the wet streets in front of the Sandy Bay Courthouse where the votes were being counted.

In the end, both PNP candidates — Dr DK Duncan (Eastern Hanover) and Ian Hayles (Western Hanover) — retained their seats with increased margins from 2007.

Hayles, who won by 172 votes in 2007, beat Donovan Hamilton this time by 1,660 votes — 8569-6909 — while Duncan, who won by a scant 10 votes four years ago over Barry Grey, got by newcomer Paula Kerr-Jarrett by 363 votes.

At 9:20 pm Duncan led by 402 votes, 6,623 to 6,221 with the three boxes still to be counted. But telephone calls to the couriers escorting the boxes confirmed the final count.

Earlier, scores of workers from both the PNP and JLP, who had gathered on a grassy area about 80 metres from the Sandy Bay Court House, mingled as the minutes ticked down to the close of voting.

Except for a stand-off between JLP candidate Paula Kerr-Jarrett and PNP workers over the amount of time she had spent at the polling cluster at the Sandy Bay Primary school, voting went smoothly in both constituency throughout the day.

All four candidates had expressed confidence going into the elections and had pointed to the work they had done and their strong support bases.