Electronic voting will eliminate magisterial recount, rejected ballots – Wilson
Published:Saturday | September 12, 2020 | 12:05 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
While Moreland Wilson, the member of parliament-elect for Westmoreland Western is a rookie in representational politics, he is considered one of the very few Jamaicans who can speak authoritatively on the issue of electronic voting.
Electronic voting (or e-voting) is a process that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting votes, and the young politician is convinced that this will reduce cost and eliminate clashes in court.
“The discussion we are having in Eastern Westmoreland would not be an issue with electronic voting,” said Wilson, who did his thesis in electronic voting for his master’s degree in public sector management at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI).
“Where some persons currently mark the X in front, behind, or outside of the symbol of their party, it would be consistent with electronic voting. Therefore, there would be no need to call on a judge to interpret the voter’s intention as to who he intended to vote for.”
On Tuesday, lawyers representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) filed a magisterial recount of the ballots cast in last Thursday’s national polls, where the incumbent Luther Buchanan of the People’s National Party (PNP) was declared the winner of the elections in the Westmoreland Eastern constituency by one vote over the JLP’s Daniel Lawrence, who was previously announced as the winner in the preliminary count.
Magisterial recounts are also in three additional constituencies, namely, St Ann South Eastern and St Catherine North Western, which were retained by the PNP’s Hugh Graham, the former councillor for Lluidas Vale, who got 5,283 votes to the JLP’s Newton Amos’s 5,261, and independent Gene Guthrie’s 25; and the PNP has called for a recount in the Clarendon North Western seat with Richard Azan.
In St Ann South Eastern, the PNP’s Lisa Hanna beat the JLP’s Delroy Granston by 32 votes, while in St Catherine North Western, the PNP’s Hugh Graham was victorious over Newton Amos of the JLP by 22 votes.
REJECTED BALLOTS
Over in the Clarendon North Western constituency which recorded 1,107 rejected ballots in last week’s general election, the Jamaica Labour Party’s Phillip Henriques polled 5,630 votes to unseat the incumbent Richard Azan of the PNP by 83 votes. Merrick Cohen, an independent candidate, received 46 votes.
“That form of the post-election process would be somewhat eliminated,” argued Wilson, who dethroned Dr Wykeham McNeil, a senior vice-president of the PNP, on taking Westmoreland Western. “There will be minimal disputes, even though there could always be a tie. This prolonged deliberation as to whether or not a ballot should be accepted or rejected would not be an issue with electronic voting.”
In a story published in The Gleaner last week, former attorney general and member of parliament-elect for St James West Central, Marlene Malahoo Forte, promised that Jamaicans will be able to cast their votes remotely by the next general election, due constitutionally in September 2025.
She said, among the options coming ahead of the next general election is electronic voting, “that can not only ensure the integrity of the process, but make it more efficient for electors.”