The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Parliamentary Registration Department has defended a returning officer after Progressive Liberal Party candidate JoBeth Coleby-Davis blocked a classroom door, yelled that ballot boxes had to be watched, and demanded that the boxes be brought outside during a chaotic confrontation after Thursday’s advance poll.

The department said returning officer Sonia Culmer did not breach established procedures even though Mrs Coleby-Davis released a statement claiming rules governing the handling of sealed ballot boxes were violated.

The department said it was aware of the controversy surrounding the transport of ballot boxes following the advance poll for the Elizabeth and Yamacraw constituencies at Thelma Gibson Primary School, noting that established procedure requires presiding officers to return sealed ballot boxes to the returning officer, who, accompanied by a senior police officer, transports them to the parliamentary commissioner.

Mrs Coleby-Davis, the PLP candidate for Elizabeth and the Minister of Energy and Transport, alleged that the returning officer acted outside established procedures and said she asked the party’s legal team to file a formal complaint.

A video circulating on social media captured the chaotic scene. Scores of PLP and Free National Movement supporters gathered in front of a classroom as several uniformed police officers stood nearby.

Supporters for both parties shouted about the handling of the ballot boxes and called on officials inside the classroom “to bring the box out.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis was at the centre of the tense scene. She stood in front of the classroom door, shouting that there had to be eyes on the box. Several times, she screamed for the box to be brought out, adding that what was being done was illegal.

At one point, a woman who appeared to be the returning officer walked to the classroom door and stretched her arm over Mrs Coleby-Davis. Mrs Coleby-Davis insisted that she was not moving.

The scene remained tense when police officers began moving the ballot boxes from the classroom to the bus. Scores of party supporters followed, while others shouted that the returning officer was a “problem” and needed to be fired.

The boxes were eventually placed on the bus. Agents representing political parties were also seen boarding.

Mrs Coleby-Davis claimed in a statement that the returning officer instructed the presiding officers in Elizabeth to leave their rooms after the ballot boxes were sealed, and to move the sealed boxes to another classroom without allowing any agents to enter.

She further claimed that one sealed ballot box had already been placed on the bus before it was removed and taken to that classroom. She said the returning officer then tried to close the door with only herself, another officer, and a presiding officer inside.

“At all times, the directive has been that sealed ballot boxes are to be taken directly from the polling rooms to the bus, accompanied by an agent representing each candidate,” Mrs Coleby-Davis said. “In all my years working elections, I have never witnessed sealed ballot boxes being removed from the polling room, or removed from the bus, and taken into another room without agents present.”

“The established process has always been that the sealed boxes go straight from the polling room to the bus for transport to the Central Police Station, whether in the case of the advance poll ahead of the general election count or in the case of the general elections ahead of the recount.”

Mrs Coleby-Davis said she asked for the matter to be raised urgently with the parliamentary commissioner, saying the incident was concerning and must be addressed.

Free National Movement chairman Dr Duane Sands condemned her conduct in the video as inappropriate, saying Cabinet ministers should show a higher level of decorum.