ALP challenges election losses and objects to OAS assessment

ST JOHN'S, Antigua, March 16, 2009 – The votes have all been counted in Antigua and Barbuda's 2009 polls, but the election appears to be far from over for the losing Antigua Labour Party (ALP) which is not only challenging the outcome in three constituencies, but taking issue with assessments made by the Organisation of American States (OAS) election observer mission.
 
ALP leader Lester Bird has indicated that his party will mount a court challenge to the results in St John’s Rural West, St John’s City East, and Barbuda, charging that the election was “tainted”.
 
A computer glitch that caused delays in voting and, subsequently, the counting process, resulted in persons unable to cast their ballots until after midday in St John's Rural West where the United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, beat the ALP's Gale Christian. In Barbuda, the party's Arthur Nibbs lost to Trevor Walker of the UPP-aligned Barbuda's People's Movement (BPM) by just one vote after.
 
In a televised address to the nation after his party won the elections, Prime Minister Spencer said there may be a need for an investigation into the problems that occurred.
 
But the ALP has suggested it will mount its own legal challenge to the party's defeat in some areas.
 
"The ALP believes that this election is a tainted election. Therefore, it has instructed its attorneys-at-law to review the entire process leading up to and including Election Day, and to advise, urgently, on all lawful means available to the ALP to ensure that this injustice is overturned as quickly as is humanly possible," said Bird, who regained the St John's Rural East seat he lost in 2004 in an upset victory over former Finance Minister Dr Errol Cort.
 
The party added that it did not accept the excuse that the computer glitch caused the problems which unfolded on Election Day.
 
"The Antigua Labour Party does not buy that excuse because we cannot, and will not, accept that voters’ lists should have been and were being printed on the very night prior to the general election," the leader said, adding that other concerns on the day included voter intimidation and persons being denied the right to vote although they had their ID cards.
 
The ALP has also put on record its objection to statements made by the OAS election observer team in its preliminary report issued on the day after elections.
 
The observers, led by former Barbados deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Dame Billie Miller, said they were satisfied with the conduct of the poll, despite the problems experienced.
 
Responding to Dame Billie's contention that ALP stakeholders did not do enough to assist the Electoral Commission in helping disseminate electoral cards, Bird wrote in a letter to OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin saying that the party's candidates and agents spent several months trying to collect cards from the commission.
 
“The Commission advised the electors that such cards could not be collected because of a break down of the machine and that such cards would need to be printed and delivered from Jamaica. When we met them (approximately six months prior to the election) the commission informed the ALP that the cards would be delayed up to six months.  At no time did the ALP fail in its duty to encourage electors to secure their voter IDs," the ALP wrote.
 
"We therefore take umbrage to the suggestion that the ALP could have done more to secure these IDs."
 
Bird also took issue with Dame Billie's stance on the commission's responsibility in the late opening of the polls.
 
"You excused the commission and indicated ‘the machinery just could not cope and could not get beyond its capability and we saw a breakdown on the day itself’.  Without consultation with the ALP as to the impact of such occurrences to get out the vote raises questions as to the validity of your conclusions," Bird said.
 
In her overall assessment, Dame Billie said the 23-member mission believed the elections unfolded in an atmosphere of calm that was “very reassuring”.
 
On Election Day, the OAS deployed its members to cover all 17 electoral constituencies and all of the 151 polling stations across the country, including on Barbuda. They observed the opening of polls and all aspects of the balloting and other operations at the polling stations, as well as the closing of the polls and the counting and transmission of ballots.
 
Although making reference to the day's hitches, Dame Billie accentuated the positive outcomes of general election day such as the fact that, “for 11 of the 17 constituencies, all of the polling stations opened on time”.
 
The OAS observers also reported only minor infringements such as billboards and posters well within the requisite 100-yards from polling stations, but the OAS Chief of Mission explained that “these were not infringements that in our view would have compromised the electoral process in any way".
 
As part of an effort to improve Antigua and Barbuda's electoral system, Dame Billie said the OAS Mission would recommend that the government institute a national identity card to “make the entire electoral and other civic processes so much easier”. 
 
She pointed as well to areas of more duplications than necessary, among them aspects of the identification process at the polling station, including how people identified themselves and the search for their names on the voter’s register. Dame Billie noted how, in some polling stations, “we thought the process appeared to be overly cumbersome and could be streamlined”.
 
Recommendations will be included in the final report that the Electoral Observation Mission will present to the OAS Permanent Council in Washington next week.
 
“We will then get into perhaps more details as to ways in which greater efficiency and greater effectiveness can be brought to the voting process,” Dame Billie explained. She particularly emphasised the need for all of the stakeholders to take an active role in the voter registration process.
 
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) election observation mission also gave a preliminary report of the elections in which it said that "voters were able to cast their ballots without intimidation or harassment, and that the voting process was conducted in an orderly, free and peaceful manner".
 
"Overall the Observer Mission visited almost all the stations on Election Day and found the operations satisfactory," said the report of the 11-member team that was led by Noel Lee, former Director of Elections of Jamaica.
 
Last Thursday's polls returned the UPP to power for a second consecutive term after the party won nine of the 17 parliamentary seats. Seven seats went to the opposition ALP while the BPM won the lone seat stake on the sister isle.

Add to: del.icio.us | Digg