WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— The People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Abigail Malcolm and her opponent councillor-elect Dawnette Foster will have to wait a little longer, as both women will miss out on the swearing-in ceremony for councillors to be held in less than 24 hours at the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.

Instead, both ladies will await the outcome of the battle of the magisterial recount for the Cornwall Mountain Division, which begins on Thursday at 10:00 am.

The PNP are hoping that several ballots that were accepted in the final count, will be rejected by the presiding judge.

“It is for the judge to decide whether he will accept them as valid ballots. If he does [accepts them], the applicant [ Malcolm] will not be successful in her quest to become the councillor for the division,” said attorney Clayton Morgan, who is representing Malcolm, after court ended on Wednesday.

However, the attorney said, if the ballots are rejected, the votes will go in Malcolm’s favour.

“If the ballots are discarded; if the judge rejects them she has a good chance of succeeding. By the way, I understand that some of them [ballots] were allocated to the applicant and most were allocated to the respondent. So, at the end of the tally we are making certain assumptions based on who gets them,” he asserted.

He said come Thursday, he will make another submission and that the matter may spill over into Friday or even next week.

“It’s a continuing matter; it’s a matter for the judge,” Morgan stressed.

Meanwhile,  attorney Senator Charles Sinclair,  who is representing Foster, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) candidate, said close to 99 ballots were damaged.

“The judge is to deliver his judgment. Certain legal submissions were made concerning PD140, in that, a large number of ballots are defaced. Almost 90 [of the ballots] the tops were removed from them,” Sinclair told Observer Online on Wednesday evening.

Sinclair described the alleged “act of disenfranchising by the PNP as an unusual event”.

“It is something everybody should abhor and be against. People go out and vote and their vote should be counted,” Sinclair argued.

He stands by his position on Wednesday afternoon, that his client will retain the seat when the judge makes his final ruling.

READ: Magisterial recount for Cornwall Mountain Division in Westmoreland underway

—Kimberley Peddie