Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Walker
DIRECTOR of Elections Danville Walker has said that the September 3 general election was conducted on a clean voters' list.
Mr. Walker and his office came in for intense criticism from the People's National Party (PNP), which lost the election and by virtue of the loss, was relegated to Opposition for the first time since 1989.
"This election was one of the sloppiest that we have had in recent times," PNP General Secretary Donald Buchanan said at the party's annual conference on September 16.
The PNP subsequently announced that it had called for an audit of the voters' list.
Among the discrepancies, the party claimed, was that persons, who were neither members of the security forces nor election-day workers, whose names had appeared on the list given to candidates on nomination day, had been omitted from the election-day list.
PNP's claims unfounded
Responding to this claim, Mr. Walker said a subsequent audit of the voters' list was done, which proved that the PNP's claims were unfounded.
"We had Price WaterhouseCoopers come in and check it and they found no case of that happening," Mr. Walker told The Gleaner yesterday.
He said the auditors utilised a combination of electronic examination of the voters' list and field work. The audit, he said, was completed on October 3 and a draft copy has been sent to the Electoral Commission.
Mr. Buchanan claimed the Electoral Office of Jamaica made errors in the September 3 polls.
"Even before a local government election is held, one of the things that we have to do is ensure that we have a clean and accurate voters' list," Mr. Buchanan stated.
However, Mr. Walker insisted that the general election was held on a clean list.
"As far as I am concerned, the voters' list is fine," he told The Gleaner.
The PNP lost the popular vote to the Jamaica Labour Party, which now forms the Government, by 3,000 votes and by a margin of five seats in the 60-seat Parliament. There is still one seat to be decided.
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com
