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Western News
PNP files for magisterial recount in East Central St James
BY HORACE HINES Observer West reporter
Thursday, January 05, 2012
MONTEGO BAY, St James — THE People's National Party (PNP) Cedric Stewart, the losing candidate in last Thursday's general election in the East Central St James constituency, has filed for a magisterial recount.
According to attorney Clayton Morgan, the documents were filed yesterday in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court.
At the end of the final count on the weekend, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Edmund Bartlett polled 6,337 votes to Stewart's 6,172. Independent candidate Roystan Richards got 24 votes.
Morgan told the Observer West yesterday, that a high-profile legal team comprising of himself, Abe Dabdoub and Raymond Clough, will represent Stewart at the recount.
Arguing that the election in the constituency was dogged by irregularities, Morgan warned that if the court does not rule in favour of the PNP candidate, then steps will be taken to have the poll declared null and void.
"We have reason to believe that the votes were not tallied and allocated correctly between the three candidates by the returning officer," Morgan said.
"We have reason too to believe that the votes that were cast for Mr Stewart but rejected by the returning officer on the grounds that the intention of the voter was not clear, was wrongly pronounced by him," he added.
The PNP attorney emphasised that his team will "focus the searchlight" on Polling Division 50, which he said, contained all the ballots of Election Day workers in the constituency.
"In that box Stewart got 247 votes, Bartlett received 45; there were no spoilt ballots but there were 162 rejects," said Morgan, adding that rejected ballots for the other 88 boxes in the constituency totalled 71.
Additionally, he said, several of the boxes came in from the polling divisions without the seals of the presiding officer as is required under the Representation of the People Act.
"Also absent were the seal of the candidates, as is also required under the Representation of the People Act," Morgan protested.
 
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1/6/2012
Dabdou love court house bad.
1/5/2012
I agree with Jakan 2011, how is it that in a constituency with an almost even split between the JLP & PNP 85% of the election day workers voted for the PNP?
If Mr. Dabdoub was still a member of the JLP he would be in court asking what % of election day workers voted for the PNP and how this affected the fairness of the election result.
1/5/2012
Mr. Dabdoub and co. seems to think that representation in Jamaica should be decided by the courts not the people.
1/5/2012
The margin of victory is 165 votes, the number of rejects is 162 so if 100% of the rejected ballots are reinstated and are all for the PNP they would still be 2 short. Note Bartlett got 15% of the votes in that box so it is more likely that only 138 of the rejected ballots are for the PNP. Since Bartlett got just over 50% of the vote it is likely that of the other 71 rejected ballots from the other boxes 36 would go to the JLP so mathematically it is unlikely that the result will change.
1/5/2012
Mr Bartlett asked for some kind of review too-of the particular PD. Everybody should be ashamed of what happened in that constituency. I could ask how did so many election day workers turned out to be PNP? That whole scenario stinks and Mr Stewart should be careful he is not seen negatively. There are timed when you fare better not insisting on your right-when you could lose more than you could gain. Voters are tired of the bickering
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