Former Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb told the Elections Petitions Court Friday afternoon that the type of plastic boxes used in the December 9, 2015, general elections were also used in the 2010 general elections and the referendum on the proposed new Constitution in 2009.<\/p>\n
Findlay-Scrubb\u2019s statement came as she was cross-examined by Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan during her oral testimony in an election petition filed by New Democratic Party\u2019s (NDP) candidate Lauron Baptiste on December 31st, 2015, following the December 9, 2015, election in North Windward which saw the incumbent Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidate Montgomery Daniel re-elected as North Windward MP and the said ULP returned to office in a narrow 8-7 margin.<\/p>\n
Baptiste is seeking an order to declare the election void in the North Windward where Daniel was returned and declared duly elected.<\/p>\n
The members of the opposition NDP have been criticizing the boxes in terms of their security following the 2015 elections.
\nFindlay-Scrubb told the court on Friday afternoon that for the 2009 referendum the political parties were invited to the sampled boxes. She was responding to a question by Astaphan.<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s Counsel Stanley \u2018Stalky\u2019 John, the lead lawyer for the legal team representing NDP\u2019s Central Leeward candidate Benjamin Exeter who filed an election petition on December 31st, 2015, following the December 9, 2015 election, asked that the question be struck from the court\u2019s record because there was no pleading to it in the petition with regards to the supervisor of elections inviting representatives of the parties to view the boxes.
\nJohn said the information is neither \u201cdirectly\u201d nor \u201cindirectly relevant.<\/p>\n
Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who is the leader of the legal teams representing the respondents, said
\nThat in the 2009 referendum the political actors \u2013 the NDP and ULP \u2013 were quite happy to use those ballot boxes. He said the evidence of such is not rebutted. He said it is agreed in this country that those boxes have been accepted before, hence the relevance of Astaphan\u2019s question.<\/p>\n
Presiding Judge Justice Stanley John (the namesake of the petitioner\u2019s lead counsel) expressed appreciation for Mendes\u2019 submission.<\/p>\n
Astaphan said his question was directly relevant as to whether the parties got the opportunity to view the sampled ballot boxes.
\nJustice John referred to paragraph 20 of Exeter\u2019s petition. He said that during cross exam by Exeter\u2019s lawyer, questions were asked concerning, among other things, the construction of the ballot boxes. He said that the central issue was whether the boxes used were in accordance with law.<\/p>\n
The presiding Judge said therefore that the question by Astaphan could not be said to be irrelevant and he was therefore allowing the question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb told the Elections Petitions Court Friday afternoon that the type of plastic boxes used in the December 9, 2015, general elections were also used in the 2010 general elections and the referendum on the proposed new Constitution in 2009. Findlay-Scrubb\u2019s statement came as she was cross-examined by Senior Counsel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n