The main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has described as “absolutely illegal”, a claim given by Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan that a number is located on the back of each of the ballots in the December elections which corresponds to the number printed on each counterfoil.
Astaphan was at the time speaking on Boom FM on Friday.
The renowned Caribbean Lawyer retracted the claim on the same day on WEFM’s Shake Up program.
“I was wrong. I was actually referring to the legislation in another jurisdiction. There are no numbers on the Ballots actually put in the Ballot box on voting day, or on… at the count… because the number on the Ballot is actually on the counterfoil, which is taken out and put in a separate Box” – Mr Astaphan said on Friday.
“So I made an error on that. I indicated to Bing Joseph that I would come on back on his Radio station on Monday and clarify… because I didn’t want that error to hang over the head of St. Vincent, because I value the credibility of my word and I don’t want an error to remain unanswered” – he added.
In a statement Monday, the NDP took Mr. Astaphan to task on the statements he made and corrected since Friday.
The NDP said “Under the Representation of the People Act, no ballot shall bear a number of any kind. A number is printed on the counterfoil only, which is removed before the ballot is placed in the ballot box.” f
“Mr. Astaphan, the lead Lawyer of the Supervisor of Elections, has described in detail to this nation a complete perversion of the voting process” – the NDP’s statement added.
The NDP is contesting the results of the December 9, 2015 General Elections, which they lost 7 seats to 8.
By: Shake Up Contributor First Published shakeupprogram.wordpress.com
