Headlines:
| Battle for South East St. Mary suffers another setback |
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| Monday, 24 September 2007 | |
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The legal battle over uncounted ballots in two boxes to
determine the winner of the constituency of South East St. Mary has suffered
another setback. When the matter came up for mention Monday morning in the Supreme Court, the Presiding Judge ordered that the matter be postponed until Tuesday. Lawyers representing the Jamaica Labour Party's Tarn Peralto who was declared the winner and the People's National Party's Harry Douglas made submissions in court last Friday about the two boxes. The boxes were inadvertently left out of the tally by the Electoral Office of Jamaica. Debate has been raging in the public domain over the boxes, with many persons arguing that voters who cast their ballots should not be disenfranchised. Lawyers for Mr. Peralto maintained that their candidate was declared the winner of the seat and that any counting of the two boxes would have to be facilitated by a court order. Lead attorney Paul Beswick argued that Mr. Peralto won the seat when the Returning Officer signed the certificate declaring him the winner following the magisterial recount. He further argued that if the two boxes are to be counted, then Mr. Douglas' attorneys will have to seek an order from the High Court by way of an election petition. |