Morrison certified as winner in St Catherine North Eastern

The Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Kerensia Morrison has been certified as the winner of the St Catherine North Eastern seat following the final official count.

The recount was held on Sunday at the Riversdale Health Centre in the constituency and was overseen by returning officer Michael Terrelonge.

At the final count, Morrison received 5,897 votes to the 3,322 received by Oswest Senior- Smith of the People’s National Party (PNP).

This is 92 fewer votes for Morrison and 10 more for Senior-Smith, an attorney, based on the preliminary figures at the close of the polls last Thursday night.

Morrison won by a margin of 2,575 votes, the second-largest to be registered in the rural farming constituency.

A total of 23,494 electors were eligible to vote, but 9,375, or 39.9 per cent, turned out to cast their ballots. This compares with 11,753, or 51 per cent, in the 2016 general election when 22,915 electors were on the list.

Terrelonge said the recount exercise was incident-free.

"Everything went smoothly; we rejected a total of 166 ballots that did not meet the required threshold, and this was the only significant change to what was previously declared," he said.

The way is now clear for Morrison, an educator, who had previously lost to the PNP’s Natalie Neita in 2016, to be sworn in as a member of parliament for the constituency. 

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