By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorTHE ELECTORAL Office of Jamaica (EOJ) said it has found "no empirical evidence" to support allegations that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP)'s general election victory in St. Ann North Eastern was aided by a padding of the voters' list.
In a statement on Tuesday, the EOJ said it "has carefully checked its record" with respect to the preparation of the voters' list and can find no occasion where prior to the general election, any objections were lodged by the People's National Party (PNP) "concerning persons being registered as electors who were not residents" in the constituency.
The EOJ, however, said with regards to "potential areas of weakness in the residence verification process", its office would be carrying out further investigations. It warned that "a careful review will be undertaken and if the concerns expressed are confirmed, appropriate corrective measures will be taken."
The PNP had alleged that after the March 8 by-election, which was won by the JLP's Shahine Robinson, the Opposition had moved persons into the constituency to shore up its support. Ms. Robinson, in the subsequent October general election, won the seat, polling 11,345 votes to the PNP's Carol Jackson's 10,243.
Ms. Jackson cried foul, charging a padding of the voters' list by the JLP. She lodged a formal complaint to the PNP hierarchy, which in turn brought the matter to the attention of the EOJ.
Contacted on Tuesday, Ms. Jackson reiterated her charge. "They know what they did," she insisted. "I have evidence that people were brought in... I have evidence that the verification process was flawed. Persons who supposedly had been out there verifying certain households are now saying they didn't."
Asked if the evidence she claims she had was verifiable, Ms. Jackson said, "Nothing can hide in Jamaica. Everybody knew it was happening... a lot of strange faces were brought in the constituency and housed at different resorts... they even used the squatter areas. Every street in Ocho Rios has a name... some of these persons didn't even know where they lived... it was that bad. My outdoor agents could tell me that it was the first time they were seeing some of these persons."
Ms. Robinson, calling the allegations "the rantings of a sore loser", said she was not surprised by what the EOJ had to say. "Immediately after the by-election we went on an aggressive enumeration drive throughout the constituency," she said. "We were able to enumerate almost 4,000 new voters. Now tell me this, where would we have found the money to bring in all these people from outside. To make wild accusations like what Ms. Jackson has been making is highly irresponsible and is simply a case of sour grapes."
Ms. Robinson said her personal house-to-house canvass indicated that she would have garnered a little over 14,000 votes, noting that "if it hadn't rained, we would have polled more... remember, this is a constituency with almost 32,000 persons on the voters' list."
The EOJ said its office had carried out detailed analysis of the patterns of registration and voting in the constituency and found nothing abnormal. "There were 31,632 electors on the voters' list for that constituency and of that number 3,270 electors were enumerated between March 31, 2001 and March 31, 2002," the EOJ explained. "This represented 4.5 per cent of the 82,301 persons enumerated islandwide during that period. This is not abnormal since St. Ann North East is one of the five largest constituencies in the country and consistently has higher than average voter registration."
A traditional PNP stronghold, St. Ann North East, prior to the by-election in 2001 and last year's general election, had been won once by the JLP since 1968. Bobby Marsh won the seat for the JLP in 1980 and the party retained it in the uncontested snap election of 1983.
Ms. Robinson, a businesswoman, first won the seat in a by-election following the decision of then MP Danny Melville to leave representational politics. In that by-election, Mrs. Robinson polled 7,734 votes; Ms. Jackson, 7,234; Barbara Clarke of the National Democratic Movement, 740; and Astor Black, an independent candidate who flew the Rastafarian flag, 41.
