The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it will be challenging the results of the local government election in the Ginger Ridge Division in St Catherine West Central in the Supreme Court.

Word of the party’s decision was shared on Thursday by St Catherine West Central Member of Parliament Dr Christopher Tufton who pointed to a number of irregularities that emerged in the final count and the magisterial recount of votes that showed the JLP candidate Jeremiah Edwards losing the division to the People’s National Party’s Ralston Wilson by seven votes.

“The issue for us, as it relates to the Ginger Ridge Division, is that we do not have confidence in the outcome of these numbers, this particular process. We remain very sceptical about the end results, and we are not confident that the will of the people, through the majority vote
— one man, one vote
— has been expressed. And, as it is our right, we intend to take it to the next level, which is an election petition,” Tufton told journalists at a news conference.

According to Tufton, one of the JLP’s concerns centre on markings on the ballots that indicate voter intent with either a tick or an X.

“For us, the issue is not only the concern around intent, which is fundamental, but also the inconsistency that has been applied, where in some instances the ticks are recognised, and in this instance they have been rejected, and that may augur in our favour, in terms of the JLP candidate,” he said.

“The other concern that I have is the issue of a final count taking place at the electoral office, presided over by the returning officer in Kitson Town, and the day after [an] additional ballot claimed to have been found in some other place which was never evident in the presence of the final count, where we had three lawyers and two additional supporters representing the JLP at that count. That ballot just appeared out of nowhere the day after, supporting the other side and was admitted, despite the objection of our lawyers, into the counting process which therefore gave an additional advantage to the candidate that has been declared today,” he added.

Tufton also said that the party had an issue with the absence on seals of envelopes containing ballots, arguing that this left “room for manipulation”.

Additionally, he said that the party’s lawyers had taken note of the markings on the rejected ballots at the final count and observed, at the magisterial recount, “where those ballots were rejected, some of them turned up not with a single tick, but with an additional tick, an additional marking, which renders those ballots null and void, or certainly, out of consideration to be placed in one column or the other. The original mark that was rejected was in support of us and would form the basis of the magisterial recount.”

He also said that in a number of instances the keys to open ballot boxes could not be found and there was speculation around whether some of the locks had been changed on some of the boxes.

“It raises questions about the security and the process where these containers of ballots could not have been opened,” he said.

Additionally, he said a number of ballots were observed not to have the signature of the presiding officer.

“When you combine all of these, and this is just part of the observations of our lawyers, one can only conclude that the process seemed to have been compromised; that there were irregularities, whether deliberately or naively, that compromise confidence in the process, and one has to question whether or not, ultimately, the people’s will in the Ginger Ridge Division was expressed in a manner where the majority vote was represented,” Tufton said.

“This is not an issue of sour grapes, it is not an issue of trying to override or overrule or undermine the democratic traditions that we believe in,” he said, adding that in the last local government election the same PNP candidate won by approximately 16 votes “and we did not take any big issue with it because we did not see anything of a discrepancy”.