HenryALTHOUGH REGISTERING more than a two to one margin of victory over his opponent in the general election last week, Central Clarendon representative, Mike Henry, is raising some concerns about the electoral process in his constituency.
Mr. Henry, claimed that there were obvious infringements of the electoral rules by factions acting on behalf of his opponent. He said that his concerns were based on the contents of a number of ballot boxes from the two polling clusters in the constituency which were invaded by political thugs on election day.
Mr. Henry pointed to three ballot boxes from the Trenton Road and Hazard Primary School polling clusters in May Pen, which had produced over voting (more votes than the number of eligible voters), during counting at the May Pen Courthouse.
The two polling clusters were the only ones in the constituency to be affected by violence on election day and both were situated around a People's National Party (PNP) stronghold, Mr. Henry said. He said that this was due to inadequate security provisions, although he had anticipated the problem and forewarned the EOJ.
On Wednesday, persons wearing orange T-Shirts invaded both clusters, electoral officers were manhandled and ballots stuffed into some of the boxes. At least one presiding officer was forced to sign ballots marked for the PNP candidate, before strong security was brought into the area to contain the illegal activities. The count from the three boxes in question, produced PNP ballots ranging from 99 per cent to over 100 per cent of the eligible votes, with no JLP votes being registered in one case and only a couple in the two other cases. In addition, there were a number of spoilt or unmarked ballots in each case.
Mr. Henry said while the irregularities had no material impact on his victory, they, along with a shooting incident in the Threadlight area on election night, had served to mar the electoral process in the constituency.
He said that a Parish Council election was expected to be run soon and a repetition of the same situation at the two polling clusters would likely ensure victory for the man against whom he contested the general election, Leopold Hylton, who was the sitting councillor for the May Pen West Division, which includes the two controversial clusters.
"I am calling on the Electoral Office to thoroughly investigate the circumstances which have affected those two clusters, which have been clearly manifested in the contents of the three boxes," said Mr. Henry. "While they have been trying hard to improve the electoral system, the one thing they have not succeeded in removing from the system is intimidation and fear and the overrunning of a station, because the law still demands that you must count all the ballots returned, even those 212 returned for my opponent, although none of them had the initials of the presiding officer.
Mr. Henry said his team had played by the rules and co-operated to the extent of not wearing green shirts at the two polling clusters, but had come in for a rude awakening by their opponents. He expressed hope that with adequate focus by the EOJ and the security forces on the two clusters now and into future elections, the unfortunate situation would not recur.
