News Briefs

Deadlock in Westmoreland Eastern after official count

The official count of votes in Westmoreland Eastern has ended in a tie, it was revealed yesterday.

The Jamaica Labour Party’s candidate, Daniel Lawrence, and the People’s National Party incumbent, Luther Buchanan, have each polled 4,834 votes.

At the preliminary count on election day on Thursday, Lawrence’s count stood at 4,831, while Buchanan had 4,823.

The returning officer will now have to break the deadlock. However, the matter could still go to court.

If at the end of the magisterial recount the tie remains, according to the Representation of the People Act, the returning officer shall be empowered to again break the deadlock.

Election day workers not required to quarantine

The Electoral Office of Jamaica is urging employers to desist from asking persons who help to oversee last week’s general election to quarantine over fears of them contracting the coronavirus from electors.

In a release yesterday, it said that such a restriction was not necessary as COVID-19 containment measures in line with the World Health Organisation and Pan American Health Organization guidelines were in place for the polls.

“Further checks with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the public health authorities confirmed that self-quarantine is not a requirement for election day workers,” the EOJ said.

Media Assn joins lawsuit in T&T

PORT-OF-SPAIN (CMC):

A High Court judge has given the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) permission to join as an interested party in a lawsuit filed against the attorney general, the commissioner of police and a senior police officer challenging the constitutionality of the police raid at the Trinidad Express newspaper building on March 11 this year.

Justice Frank Seepersad ruled also that the MATT could make submissions in the matter adding that the High Court was resolute in its view that MATT demonstrated it has a sufficient interest in the proceedings and that the outcome will have a material and fundamental impact on the association and its members.

The Express had filed the lawsuit contending that the warrants issued by a justice of the peace to search the premises were unconstitutional, unlawful, arbitrary, unnecessary and disproportionate.

The applicants are also arguing that the search contravened their right to freedom of the press guaranteed in the Constitution.

The raid on the newspaper followed an investigative article on a senior police officer who had been flagged by local banks. The Express newspaper said that several devices were seized from the editor-in-chief’s office.