Recount lawyers brace for ‘X’ battle - Row over voter intention in Westmoreland Eastern

WESTERN BUREAU:

Lawyers representing Luther Buchanan, the embattled political incumbent of the People’s National Party (PNP) in the Westmoreland Eastern constituency, have served notice seeking to challenge a ruling made against accepting ballots marked for the PNP bearing certain marks other than a cross or an ‘X’.

Maurice McCurdy, lead attorney for Buchanan, believes that while some ballots in question did not bear the conventional ‘X’, as provided for in the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), those marked with a tick should be awarded to his client as they indicate voter intent.

“This parish judge (Steve Walters) has rejected ticks as an acceptable form of voting,” McCurdy told The Gleaner following the end of the second day of the magisterial recount in the Westmoreland parish capital, Savanna-la-Mar.

According to McCurdy, ticks have been accepted as a bona fide voting mark by other magistrates in the past, including in the 2016 magisterial recount case involving Homer Davis and Derrick Kellier in the St James Southern constituency.

He was also critical of the inconsistencies in how ballots rejected by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) are to be handled by a judge in a magisterial recount.

“What we have to do in this instance, we have to consult judges’ notes so we can show the parish judge where his brothers and sisters have accepted the English law rulings before,” McCurdy said.

NOT IN TANDEM WITH ROPA

However, O’Neil Brown, lead attorney for the Jamaica Labour Party’s contender, Daniel Lawrence, argued that the authority on which the PNP relied was not in tandem with ROPA.

“As such, the vote that they want to be counted on behalf of the PNP was not accepted, and the judge indicated that he will use this ruling as a precedent going forward to guide him,” said Brown.

The court on Saturday rejected a submission from Leonard Green, attorney for the PNP, using authorities from the United Kingdom that sought to have the court accept a rejected ballot not clearly marked as prescribed in Section 35 of the ROPA.

However, following rebuttal from counsel representing Lawrence, Judge Walters found favour with their position and threw out the PNP’s submission, arguing that he could not import an authority from another jurisdiction to supersede Jamaican law.

“I cannot rely on the Parliament of another country. We have our own Parliament here. We also have the Representation of the People Act, which is like our Constitution. Therefore, my ruling is that this ballot will remain rejected,” Walters said in reference to a ballot presumably marked for the PNP’s Buchanan but not meeting the required criteria.

As for the other authorities that the PNP lawyers have indicated they will draw on, Brown said that he would reserve the response of his team until the submission is made today.

“If that is, in fact, so, both magistrates have equal jurisdiction, and it is a matter for the judge’s discretion. We would wait to see what authority they bring,” Brown told The Gleaner.

With 65 boxes already counted, 2,551 votes have been allotted to Buchanan and 2,455 to Lawrence. Haile Mika’el, an independent candidate, has so far mustered 18 votes.

The awarding of the 107 ballots that were previously rejected by the EOJ in the ongoing magisterial recount will likely be the deciding factor in the Westmoreland Eastern constituency.

From the 65 boxes counted up to Saturday evening, Lawrence received 18 of the rejected ballots to Buchanan’s nine. Thirty-six of the 63 rejected ballots counted so far have been ruled as properly disposed.

Lawrence on Monday picked up an additional vote that was discovered by the judge during the magisterial recount in Buchanan’s envelope.

Both Buchanan and Lawrence will resume today’s magisterial recount hoping that the court will be favourable to them in the awarding of the majority of the remaining 44 rejected ballots now in contention.

The magisterial recount was filed by attorneys for Lawrence after Buchanan was declared the winner earlier last week following the returning officer’s vote for Buchanan to break a 4,834-all deadlock after the official recount.