Blackman only candidate to save deposit

by SHERRYLYN A. TOPPIN sherrylynclarke@nationnews.com

NEWLY ELECTED MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT for St James North, Chad Blackman, was the only candidate who managed to save his $250 deposit in the recent by-election.

Chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC), attorney Ramon Alleyne SC, told the DAILY NATION all of the other candidates failed to secure enough votes to get the refund.

“As it relates to the deposit, the rule is settled at Section 54 of the associated subsidiary legislation, which requires that a sixth of the votes cast is the number which any candidate would have to have cast in their favour to save their deposit. In this situation, the only person who would have passed that would have been the victor, Chad Blackman. Everyone else was below the required sixth of the votes cast,” Alleyne said.

According to section 54 (4) of the election rules under the Representation of the People’s Act: “Subject to paragraph (3), the deposit of a candidate shall be forfeited if a poll is taken and after the count of the votes by the returning officer (including any recount) is completed, the candidate has not been elected and is found not to have polled more than one-sixth of the total number of votes polled. For the purposes of this paragraph the number of votes polled shall be the number of ballot papers counted, other than ballot papers endorsed by the returning officer with the word ‘rejected’.”

There were 12 spoilt ballots in the by-election on May 21.

According to figures released by returning officer Leonard Walters on the night of the election, 3 231 votes were cast, of which Blackman, who ran under the banner of the ruling Barbados Labour Party (BLP) got 84.27 per cent or 2 723.

Felicia Dujon of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) got 14.48 per cent with 468 votes. Steffanie Williams of the Community Empowerment Party and Alex Mitchell, president of the Bajan Free Party got 0.65 and 0.22 per cent respectively, with 21 and seven votes.

Candidates paid their deposits to the Treasury at the National Housing Corporation on Nomination Day, May 6.

Alleyne said there were no irregularities with the poll, but they were called to investigate instances where voters said their names were left off the register.

“Those were investigated to ensure that the list was legitimate and wellconstructed. After those investigations, we were satisfied that all the procedures had been followed.”

After the results were announced Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne also mentioned at least five voters whose names were omitted from the register of electors.

“They came to our office, two persons who had been disenfranchised, not through any fault of their own. The Electoral and Boundaries Commission placed their addresses in a different constituency although they had voted here on the previous occasion in 2022,” he told reporters at the constituency office in Rock Dundo, St James.

“We went up there, we fought that battle, but the Electoral Commission did not put them back on that list,” he added with a wry smile.

He added there was no need to protest or take legal action because it wouldn’t have made a difference to the outcome.

In the meantime, Alleyne said the EBC was preparing to conduct a post-mortem and he could not speak to any lessons learnt.

“We do it in an organised manner, so that is about to be held. It has not been done yet, so any lessons coming out of it will be determined after we sit and have a discussion with the officers on the ground as to what occurred, what we could improve, and the like,” he said.

The chairman also said he could not give a date on when the election report would be published.

This was the second by-election held since the Barbados Labour Party assumed office in 2018, the other being in St George North in November 2020. Both were won by the BLP.

(FP)

(FP)