Two main political parties still claiming victory in local gov't election

By Nakinskie Robinson    

 

Amid growing confusion fuelled by claims of victory in Monday's Local Government Election by both major political parties, the final result of ballots counted by the Electoral Office of Jamaica show that mayoral control of fourteen municipalities will be evenly shared between the two parties.

 

The EOJ says the Jamaica Labour Party won the majority of divisions in St. Thomas, Portland, St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James, St. Elizabeth and Clarendon.

 

The PNP won the majority of divisions in Hanover, Westmoreland, Manchester, St. Mary, St. Catherine and the Portmore City Municipality.

 

The Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation is tied at 20 seats each.

 

But the PNP, having won the popular vote in Kingston and St. Andrew, will take up the mayoral position in the KSAMC.

 

People's National Party (PNP) General Secretary Dr. Dayton Campbell has taken issue with the reporting of the election results by the Electoral Office of EOJ.

 

Dr. Campbell insisted that the parliamentary opposition has won the local government election given that it will now control six municipal corporations and the city municipality of Portmore. 

 

Dr. Campbell argued that since the opposition will be at the helm of six municipal corporations and one city municipality, this should have been made clear by the EOJ. 

 

"The report from the EOJ should be that the JLP has won 7, the PNP has won 5 by having majority of the divisions. They will have control of KSA based on having the popular vote, which is again according to law, and they also won the city municipality of Portmore and the Mayor. That's what it is. So what we have put out as facts, it's not something that anybody can...question successfully," he insisted. 

 

Dr. Campbell said the election results indicate that the party is gaining traction among the Jamaican people.

 

He said the party is encouraged by the number of divisional wins and the increase in seat counts in eight parishes.

 

But he was taken to task about his apparent disapproval of how the results were relayed by the EOJ, considering he sits on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica which is the board that overseas EOJ operations. 

 

"Don't you find you're in an awkward position now to be sort of openly criticising the final verdict of the electoral office, a body over which you preside?" he was asked by Radio Jamaica's Hotline host Emily Shields. 

 

"No, I'm not criticising them; I'm saying that the way in which it is reported is inconsistent with what I'm seeing as the legal framework," Dr. Campbell maintained. 

 

 

Meanwhile, Information Minister Robert Morgan has hit back at Dr. Campbell's remarks, arguing that the matter brought up by the PNP's General Secretary was not an issue in the previous local government election. 

 

"The law has been in existence for how long and the Electoral Office, which is the custodian of our electoral processes, and who determines based on the number who wins or loses, have consistently counted victory in a particular way. And on this peculiar occasion, we're changing, we're moving the goal post. Why is it that since time immemorial, we have counted it in this way, but for this election, we're twisting up ourselves in various forms in order to change how the Electoral Office has counted it?" he questioned.

 

Mr. Morgan said the issue of Portmore being counted in the parish votes for St. Catherine as well as an independent municipality is a matter that the government's push for parish status for the city municipality would address. 

 

"We believe that by right, Portmore should become its own parish, to fix the anomaly where Portmore councillors sit in the St. Catherine Municipal Corporation," said the Information Minister.   

 

He was also speaking Friday with Hotline host Emily Shields.