Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The legal battle over what is to be done with the ballots in the two boxes which were not counted in the St. Mary South Eastern constituency is to continue in chambers at the Supreme Court on Monday.

Yesterday attorney-at-law Paul Beswick argued that the procedure to resolve the dispute must be brought by way of an election petition and it was then for the court to decide the issue.

Mr. Beswick who is representing Tarn Peralto, the Jamaica Labour Party candidate who was declared the winner by 37 votes, is seeking an extension of the seven-day injunction which was granted last week.

The injunction had barred Director of Elections Danville Walker from counting the ballots in the two boxes. Walker had said that the two boxes were taken with other boxes to the Electoral Office, but there were no keys to open them. He said while waiting for the tool to cut open the locks, they proceeded to count other boxes and those two boxes were inadvertently stored with the counted boxes.

Injunction issue

Attorneys-a-law K. D. Knight, Glen Cruickshank and Bert Samuels who are representing Harry Douglas, the People's National Party candidate, will be urging the judge not to grant any further injunction.

Douglas wants the Director of Elections to count the ballots because section 45 of the Representation of the People Act makes provision for all the ballots cast to be counted.

The lawyers will be arguing that to extend the injunction would be to deny the constituents of their rights under the Constitution. They will also be arguing that under section 49 (a) of the Representative of the People Act, the court has no jurisdiction to grant an order that will halt the lawful process.

According to Douglas' lawyers, a breach was committed when Peralto was declared the winner three days after the election. They will be arguing that section 49 of the Representation of the People Act states that the Returning Officer should not issue a certificate until a minimum of seven days after the final count.