Mark Beckford, Staff Reporter

Harry Douglas, former People's National Party Member of Parliament for St. Mary South East, pumps his fist as he exits the Electoral Office on Duke Street, downtown Kingston yesterday. Mr. Douglas lost the seat to the Jamaica Labour Party's Tarn Peralto by 15 votes after the counting of the ballots in two controversial boxes. - Norman Grindley/ Deputy Chief Photographer

Some, maybe many, People's National Party (PNP) supporters thought the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Tarn Peralto would have been the shortest-serving Member of the House of Representatives after his swearing-in at Thursday's re-opening of Parliament.

He, however, proved them wrong after he was confirmed the winner of the South East St. Mary seat at the end of the counting of the two controversial ballot boxes containing sealed envelopes with the ballots of election day workers.

"I was feeling very happy from the 6th of September," Mr. Peralto told The Gleaner yesterday afternoon.

After the official count, PNP candidate Harry Douglas had lost by 34 votes; however, he asked for a magisterial recount.

Two boxes not counted

Although Mr. Peralto picked up an additional three votes in the magisterial recount, controversy arose after it was discovered that two boxes from the constituency containing votes from election day workers, who voted on August 28, were not counted in the official or magisterial counts.

The controversy was deepened when Mr. Peralto obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court blocking the counting of the two ballot boxes. The injunction was only lifted one day before the re-opening of Parliament, on Thursday, with the result coming yesterday.

After the final result yesterday, Mr. Peralto continued to defend his decision to seek the injunction.

"The electoral process is governed by rules and laws and I have maintained that from the beginning ... those votes cannot be introduced after the final count, the rules must be followed."

Conceded defeat

As he had done after the initial election result, Mr. Douglas yesterday conceded defeat and said he would not be contesting the results from the two ballot boxes which were not included in the magisterial recount. Mr. Douglas, who had been MP for the constituency since 1989, expressed gratitude to the voters of South East St. Mary.

He said he was now looking to the future and his "retirement course", as well as toward helping the PNP in its re-organisation and getting involved in social work.

mark.beckford@gleanerjm.com