PNP files injunction to prevent swearing in of JLP’s councillor-elect in Cornwall Mountain division pending outcome of magisterial recount

Lawyers representing Abigail Malcolm, the People's National Party (PNP) candidate for the Cornwall Mountain division in Westmoreland, say her Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) counterpart, Dawnette Foster, has been “evasive” in their efforts to serve her injunction documents.

On Friday, Malcolm applied for an injunction through her attorneys Maurice McCurdy and senior counsel Clayton Morgan seeking to bar Foster from being sworn in as the councillor.

They are demanding a magisterial recount in the division after the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) declared Foster the winner following the local government elections on February 26.

In a slim margin of 27 votes, Foster polled 1,497 votes to Malcolm's 1,470.

“We applied for a magisterial recount in the Cornwall Mountain division in Westmoreland on Friday and we applied for an injunction to prevent the swearing in of the candidate for the JLP, Miss Dawnette Foster, but she has been very evasive, as the bailiff is not able to locate her,” McCurdy told The Gleaner today.

“We are also trying to serve the election petition on her as well, but Miss Foster has been evading service.”

According to McCurdy, the hearing of the injunction seeking to prevent Foster from being sworn in is set for tomorrow, March 5, in the Westmoreland Parish Court, while the magisterial recount is set to commence on Wednesday, March 6.

The Gleaner understands that the councillors-elect are scheduled to be sworn in on Thursday, March 7.

Following the official count by the EOJ, the PNP won 11 of the 14 divisions in the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, while the JLP won three.

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