Senator Leacock cries foul

Opposition Senator St Claire Leacock believes that the ballots from the last General Elections are being used in a conspiracy to victimize certain persons.

The last general election was held on December 7, 2005. The Unity Labour Party (ULP) won the election by a margin of 12-3.{{more}}

“This is a serious development of institutionalized victimization,” declared Senator Leacock as he spoke earlier this week at a New Democratic Party (NDP) press conference.

He was addressing the issue of the election ballot box that was found downstairs the Government Printery building, outside the room where the boxes are stored by six teenage boys on Saturday, March 31.

The boys were playing table tennis upstairs and went down stairs to retrieve a ball when they reportedly stumbled on the ballot box containing the ballot papers from polling station B from the Owia Government school polling station in North Windward Constituency.

Leacock said that he visited the scene where he made his own discoveries and conclusions. He recalled that when he initially spoke on the issue he had stated that the incident reflected “carelessness, interference or deliberate action.”

He also had said that because the ballot box reported the same information that had been recorded in the election that there was no call for any protest action.

Leacock now says that timing of the discovery of the ballot box and the occurrences of the incident are of grave concern.

Calling privacy and confidentiality two critical pillars of the electoral process, Leacock said that unless voters could be assured of a secret and sacred vote then “the integrity of the election process is violated.”

Investigation into the circumstances which led to the discovery of the ballot box is still ongoing. Members of staff at the Electoral Office have been interviewed as police try to figure out how the Ballot box came to be outside.