Westmoreland Eastern magisterial recount set for Friday

A magisterial recount for the Westmoreland Eastern constituency has been set for Friday.

Lawyers representing the Jamaica Labour Party filed the application this morning.

Attorney-at-law O'Neil Brown, a member of JLP legal team, says documents will be served on Luther Buchanan, the incumbent People’s National Party (PNP) candidate who was declared the winner of the September 3 election, as well as the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) and the returning officer for Westmoreland Eastern.  

The JLP’s Daniel Lawrence is seeking the recount after Saturday’s official counting by the EOJ.

The seat was previously declared in favour of Lawrence following the preliminary count last Thursday which saw him polling 4,831 to Buchanan's 4,823.

However, the official count ended in a tie with both men receiving 4,834 votes, while independent candidate Haile Mika'el received 34 votes.

Approximately 107 ballots were rejected.

This saw the returning officer for Westmoreland Eastern casting the deciding vote in favour of Buchanan.

In deciding who would be the next member of parliament, the names of both candidates were placed in an empty ballot box.

The returning officer then pulled a name from the box. 

Buchanan's name was chosen.

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