Supervisor of Elections, two election officers file affidavits

Two election officials, in addition to respondent Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb, have filed affidavits in response to the application by New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Benjamin Exeter for the production and inspection of documents related to the Central Leeward constituency of the December 9 general elections.

Today, when lawyers for the respondent appear before Justice Brian Cottle,{{more}} their arguments as to why Exeter’s application should not be allowed will be supported by affidavits of supervisor of elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb, returning officer for Central Leeward Winston Gaymes and election clerk for Central Leeward Clyde Robinson.

In his affidavit, Gaymes said after the preliminary count on December 9, Sir Louis Straker was declared winner of the Central Leeward seat by a margin of 314 votes.

He said after the close of the poll, he collected the six ballot boxes from Layou and Buccament and took them to the Layou Police Station.

“All ballot boxes received by me were sealed with 5 orange seals, 4 on each side of the box and one on the flap in the centre of the box, the boxes also had a sticker with signatures on it including that of candidates or their agents.”

Gaymes said Clyde Robinson, the election clerk, collected the nine ballot boxes for the Barrouallie polling stations and delivered them to him at the Layou Police Station.

“The various boxes were placed in one of the holding cells at the Police Station and locked. I kept sole possession of the keys to the holding cell.”

The returning officer said next morning, when he retrieved the boxes for the final count, they were in the same condition and sealed, as they were delivered to the police station on the night of December 9.

“As a result, the permanent seals of the boxes were cut in order to allow the final count to commence. Mr Exeter and his agents or attorneys were present,” Gaymes stated.

He said the agents present for Exeter were his lawyers Maia Eustace, Sharon Cummings and Shirlan Barnwell, and Ajene Eustace, son of NDP leader Arnhim Eustace.

“Before the commencement of the final count, I noticed the absence of Sir Louis Straker and any person representing him or the ULP. I took the liberty of calling Mr Straker and told him that I had not seen him or any of his agents and that I intended to proceed with the count. I began the count in their absence. I never called Sir Louis Straker during the count of the votes. Nor did I beg him to come as alleged…”

Gaymes said sometime after the count commenced, they were joined by Vernon McDowall and then by Sir Louis and two other representatives for the ULP, Noel Samuel and Gideon Nash.

Gaymes said during the count, no one objected to any specific vote or votes cast or counted by him.

“…The final count proceeded without objection and with the participation of Mr Exeter and his agents.”

The returning officer also said there were no objections to any specific ballot or ballots in box CLF by Exeter or his agents during the final count on the ground that the initials of the presiding officer or the official mark were missing, as alleged in Exeter’s affidavit.

“When I opened the box CLF, I discovered that the ballots in this specific box did not have the initials of the presiding officer nor any official mark on the ballots. As a result, I stated that I was minded to reject all the votes in this specific box.

“Mr Exeter and his lawyers however indicated to me that they were not objecting to the ballots and consented to all the votes in box CLF being counted. That is the time and occasion I said ‘what is good for the goose is good for the gander’. I meant that Mr Exeter’s consent was the right thing to do as both candidates would receive and in fact received votes from this box.

“I therefore counted the ballots in box CLF. The final margin of victory for Sir Louis Straker was 20, Sir Louis Straker received 121 votes and Mr Exeter 101 votes, there were no rejected ballots. Therefore even if all the ballots in box CLF were rejected, Sir Louis Straker would still have won the seat by a significant number of votes.”

The returning officer, in his affidavit also denied allegations that mutilated ballots were found as alleged or at all.

“The allegation is completely false. Additionally, Mr Exeter, Mrs Morris Cummings and Ms Barnwell made no formal objection to any of the votes in CLF1 as alleged or at all.”

In relation to that information contained in the Form 16 Preliminary Statement for one polling station, which indicated that the number of used ballots and returned ballots, when combined was greater than the number of ballots issued by the returning officer, Gaymes said he informed Maia Eustace, Exeter and everyone else present that these were “simple clerical mistakes made by the presiding officer when filling out the Form 16 Statement of Poll.

“In any event, these mistakes on the Form did not affect the number of votes cast or the validity of any vote,” Gaymes said.

He also referred to a missing preliminary statement for box CL1.

“This statement is normally in an envelope provided when the boxes are collected, however when we checked the envelope, this document was not present. However, this did not prevent the final count of the validity of the votes cast or counted at the final count.”

Gaymes noted that during the final count, he overruled the objections of the agent of Sir Louis, who repeatedly challenged the fact that he was allowing Exeter and his team to touch the ballots. He also said that at no time did anyone whisper in his ears, as alleged.

The returning officer also said he never said that he had to finish the counts because he had to go to Government House to meet the supervisor of elections.

“This never happened as I did not have any appointment to meet the Super­visor as alleged or at all.”

He also denied allegations that he did anything to indicate bias or impropriety or that he had acted improperly.

Gaymes said at the end of the final count, the results were called out aloud to all persons present in the room.

“The results were 2,497 votes for Sir Louis Straker of the Unity Labour Party and 2,184 votes for Mr Benjamin Exeter. The results reflected that Sir Louis Straker won the election in Central Leeward by 313 votes. Mr Exeter never objected to or disputed the final count. If he did it certainly was not done in my presence.

In his affidavit, election clerk Clyde Robinson said during the count, Exeter and his lawyers commented on their inability to examine counterfoils.

“This objection was made consistently for each box. Mrs Sharon Cummings requested to examine the counterfoils of every box which contained the voters ID number, however the returning officer refused to produce them to her. The requests were refused as this was not permissible. Also they gave no reason for wanting to inspect the counterfoils. I agreed with the returning officer. I did not believe it was right to expose the names of voters,” Robinson stated.

The election clerk also supported the statement of Gaymes that he said he would reject all the ballots in box CLF, as the ballots in that box did not have the initials of the presiding officer nor any official mark.

“In my presence and hearing Mr Exeter and his lawyers however indicated that they were not objecting to the ballots and consented to all the votes in box CLF being counted.”

Robinson also said that he does not recall any objection by Exeter or dispute of the final count on the night of the count.

“If he did it certainly was not done in my presence,” Robinson said.

The election clerk said following the final count, the ballot boxes were sealed in the presence of the candidate or agents and other persons present and secured for transportation to the supervisor of elections.

In her affidavit, Findlay-Scrubb said the allegation that the ballot boxes were not properly sealed is false and “clearly shows that neither the Applicant/Intended Petitioner nor his legal representatives understand how a ballot box is sealed.”

The supervisor said the exhibits (photographs) included by Exeter “clearly show that the boxes were properly sealed and secured with 5 orange seals which were provided to the Presiding Officers by the Electoral Office. It is impossible to open the box and replace the seals because only 5 seals were provided to the Presiding Officer to secure each ballot box at each polling station after the preliminary count. There were no extras.”

Findlay-Scrubb, in her affidavit, stated that the allegation that some ballots did not have an official mark is inaccurate.

“All ballot papers issued to Presiding Officers had the official mark as required by law. What however I noticed was that in a few instances the official mark was printed on the counterfoil. The counterfoil is part of the ballot paper.”

The supervisor of elections said following the final count, leader of the NDP Arnhim Eustace and others publicly advanced different allegations for Exeter’s loss.

“One allegation was that ballot boxes were missing. This was false,” Findlay said.

“Another allegation contained in a press release was that the Electoral Office had wrongly or fraudulently registered 320 or more persons in the Central Leeward constituency. I was surprised to hear this as no such allegation was brought to my attention previously. Also there were no objections to the alleged 320 names on the register of voters for Central Leeward.”

Findlay-Scrubb, the respondent, is being represented by Anthony W Astaphan SC, Parnell Campbell QC, Grahame Bollers and Richard Williams.