Former interim chief secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Ancil Dennis has now lost the Buccoo/Mt Pleasant seat by four votes and not two.
In a statement yesterday, Dennis said over the past two days he has been subjected to “slander and ridicule” because he called for the recount, but said those people did not understand the process.
Dennis said according to the rules, the Returning Officer should only make a declaration of which candidate has the most votes if by noon on the day following the closing of the poll neither a candidate nor his agent requests the Returning Officer to conduct a final count. This, he said, is normally called a recount.
“I submitted my request for a general final count before noon on the day following the closing of the poll, given the razor thin margin of two votes,” he said.
This was widely expected,” Dennis said.
Dennis said the final count took place at the Lambeau Multi-Purpose Facility from 3 pm on December 7 to 1 am on December 8.
“Prior to the start of the final count, my appointed agent enquired of the Returning Officer for Buccoo/Mt. Pleasant about the recounting of the unused ballots undetached from the ballot books, but she refused to allow this for all the polling stations,” he said.
This refusal, Dennis said, was a contravention of the rules which requires the Returning Officer to count all ballots.
“Hence this must include the unused ballots undetached from the ballot books,” he said.
“This refusal to count all the ballots was a material irregularity which based on legal precedent has the real likelihood of voiding and invalidating the election results since my request was for a general final count. I have chosen not to litigate this issue,” he said.
Dennis said a general final count includes checks of all documents to ensure that all ballots issued by the Returning Officer are accounted for.
“This complete counting and verification exercise is also to ensure the accuracy of the election result,” he said.
“Nevertheless, the final count, recount, proceeded and it must be stressed that several ballots were questioned both by the agent for the PDP candidate and my agent. For example, a particular ballot which was initially counted, was varied and considered a rejected ballot because the elector cast their vote utilising a pen and not the stamp provided by the EBC,” he said.
“Some rejected ballots were also varied,” he said.
Dennis said by letters dated December 8, 2021 issued by his agent, the Chief Election Officer was duly notified of my intention to continue the final count process.
He said that by letter dated December 9, he received correspondence from the Election and Boundaries Commission’s Chief Election Officer which confirmed his request and scheduled this process for December 13, 2021, at 10 am.
“It is noteworthy that although this process had not been completed on December 9, 2021, the President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago had sworn in the PDP candidate Mr. Sonny Craig as the member for the electoral district of Buccoo/Mt. Pleasant,” he said.
Dennis said now that the official business is out of the way, he could congratulate the winner Sonny Craig.
According to the EBC, this is the final vote count:
PDP - 924
PNM - 920
IDA - 13
UTP - 6
Ricardo Phillips - 0