Mitchell and Dabdoub TRW, THE American company which provided Jamaica's voter registration system in the 1997 general election, is still contracted in a maintenance capacity to the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC), Danville Walker, the director of elections told the Election Court on Tuesday.
Mr. Walker said the contract with TRW and the EAC in relation to the voter registration system expired by statutory duration.
Attorney-at-law Abe Dabdoub of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who contested the December 1997 general election in the St. Catherine North East Constituency is contending several irregularties took place in the constituency on election day. He is seeking to unseat Phyllis Mitchell, the People's National Party (PNP) candidate, who won the seat by 30 votes.
On being asked by Headley Cunningham, Q.C. whether he would say TRW was derelict in carrying out its contractual obligations to the EAC, Mr. Walker replied: "No I don't know if derelict is the word. I would say there were a number of shortcomings which resulted in omissions of names from the voters list".
He also said one of TRW's shortcomings was that it did not have adequate back-up procedures. He said if TRW had such a procedure it could have prevented loss of data which resulted in the omissions of names from the voters lists.
On being asked whether their services would be used again, Mr. Walker replied: "They would have significant hurdles to overcome before we hire them."
Mr. Walker also testified that at an EAC meeting, Mr. Dabdoub had referred to the final voters list and said about 200 names were missing from the list supplied to him. He said Mr. Dabdoub had "quite gleefully" said he did not mind because the majority of the missing names were those of comrades. He said he knew that when Mr. Dabdoub said comrades he was referring to PNP supporters.
When Dabdoub made the comment, Walker said he remembered the chairman of the EAC saying that it was being captured in the minutes of the EAC.
Questioned by attorney-at-law, Nicole Foster of the Attorney-General's Depart-ment, Mr. Walker said the names of the police and military were not supposed to appear on the voters list for civilians. He admitted the names of police and military persons were on the December 1997 voters list. Asked what was the reason for that he replied: "I would have to say it was a computer error."
Cross-examined by attorney-at-law Ernest Smith, who represents Mr. Dabdoub, Mr. Walker said the presiding officer was not supposed to permit a policeman to vote on the date fixed for civilians to vote.
The hearing continues before Mr. Justice Basil Reid in the Supreme Court on October 30.
