| 2 and a half months ago, we told you about the election petition that the PUP had filed to up-end the municipal election results in San Pedro. Well, just after the start of news tonight, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin adjourned the first day in the full hearing of this petition.
As we reported, Incumbent Mayor Daniel Guerrero and the UDP 7 held unto their seats in the island town by a small margin.
PUP's Mayoral Candidate Abner Andre Perez and the councillor candidates from the PUP 7 team say that there is a discrepancy of 275 ballots from polling station #37. Their party scrutineers cross-checked the numbers they had, and when they compared it with the figures from Elections and Boundaries officials on March 7, they came to the conclusion that these 275 ballots were not properly accounted for.
Given the small margin of victory, they believe that these 275 ballots in dispute could have affected the outcome the results of the election in San Pedro. So, they are asking Chief Justice Benjamin to declare the elections null and void.
They're being represented by Attorney Eamon Courtenay. Incumbent Mayor Daniel Guerrero and the councillors in dispute are being represented by attorney Estevan Perrera.
Chief Elections Officer Josephine Tamai, and San Pedro's Returning Officer Catherine Cumberbatch are being represented by Solicitor General Nigel Hawke. Cumberbatch, who you'll remember is the Chief Meteorological Officer, was the lead election official in San Pedro in the March 7 Municipal Elections.
Most of today's hearing was focused on taking sworn testimony from the PUP's representatives who were responsible to keep a close eye on the election for them. Mayoral Candidate Abner Andre Perez was also called to testify. Those happened in the morning, and in the afternoon, Josephine Tamai and Catherine Cumberbatch were rigorously cross examined by attorney Eamon Courtenay.
Our news team was at court all day, and late this evening, we got a chance to speak with Courtenay as the lead attorney for the Petitioners. He said that day 1 went to the PUP:
Eamon Courtenay, attorney
"The case was brought by the petitioners who called their 3 witnesses to testify. The case is whether or not the election was conducted in accordance with the town council regulations and act. The witnesses we called, we believe gave evidence to show very clearly that there was a non-compliance with the law. A number of these incidents of non-compliance was actually confirmed by the returning officer Miss Cumberbatch and by the chief elections officers and their witness Mrs. Flowers. What is left now is for us to give submissions to the chief justice and what we will attempt to do in our submission is to persuade the chief justice that the irregularities which we have identified, irregularities which they admitted, you heard Mrs. Cumberbatch telling you that she had to correct a lot of the paper. We had the amazing confession from the corrections and boundaries commission that after the elections they in fact had the balance and opened the envelopes and counted the ballots. That is not in compliance with the law but the point is that all of these irregularities we say are sufficient to ask the chief justice to say that the elections must be re-held. Ballot box C-A is one of the most important pieces of evidence. What happened there is that there were 675 voters and 675 ballots were made available. There were 800+ voters in C-A. At the end of the balloting they only put on the form 400. The question was where is the additional 275 ballots. What they did, this is the point we are making to the chief justice, what the elections and boundaries commission and Mrs. Cumberbatch in particular did, they realized this mistake and simply put on the form, oh strike out the numbers and add 275. Change and say it is accurate. I pointed out to Mrs. Cumberbatch, you can only certify that if you went yourself and checked the actual ballots and said yes 275 ballots were accounted for and then put it on the form. She did not do that and therefore her certificate of correcting it in our submissions cannot be relied on that. Its juts a mathematical correction to try to reconcile what they had on paper. In this case it is not about mathematics. It's about the politics and the vote."
Reporter
"Sir do you dispute any assertion from any party that this particular competition is frivolous and vexatious?"
Eamon Courtenay, attorney
"Anyone who says that, I believe is being politically partisan and not legal. We are now in court and not in the political arena."
Shortly after that, we got a chance to speak with Estevan Perrera, the attorney for the UDP 7 who's elected positions are being challenged. Not surprisingly, he disagrees completely with Courtenay. He said, that the case is going in the favor the UDP Incumbents:
Reporter
"PUP have said that they believe that this case is going very well for them that certain important admissions and clarifications came out in testimony came out today which helps them in their case. Do you agree or disagree?"
Estevan Perrera, attorney
"I actually disagree with that statement. You were in the court as well, this morning we found that the witnesses for the petitioners actually had more admissions in support of our position. We believe that the case is actually sided in our benefit at this point in time."
Reporter
"Do you think that this particular petition is frivolous?"
Estevan Perrera, attorney
"Yes I do believe its frivolous and I do believe that anyone who looks at the actual petition and the numbers will recognize that there was an error and an oversight in terms of minor miscalculations that were later remedied and that it's not sufficient enough for court to set aside an entire election based on the facts or position presented by the petitions. We're saying that the reported errors are so minor that simply by looking at the forms, one can actually make those corrections and recognize where those errors were made on the actual forms."
Chief Justice Benjamin has adjourned the case until May 28.
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