Lucky draw saves Luther

For the first time in Jamaica's parliamentary electoral history, a returning officer yesterday was required to cast a tiebreaker after two candidates polled identical numbers in Thursday's general election.

Daniel Lawrence of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), who was declared winner of the Westmoreland Eastern seat by eight votes based on the preliminary count, lost the seat to the incumbent Luther Buchanan after the official count. Both candidates received 4,834 votes before the returning officer cast the deciding one for Buchanan.

There were 107 rejected ballots.

The returning officer, who is empowered by law to break the tie, pulled Buchanan's name from a box and declared him winner. The names were written by the candidates lawyer and placed in the box, outside the presence of the returning officer.

Following the declaration that Buchanan has won the seat, O' Neil Brown, the lawyer representing Lawrence, said they would be filing for a magisterial recount of the ballots

Maurice McCurdy, legal counsel for the PNP's Luther Buchanan, said he stands ready to defend his client as the winner of the election in that Westmoreland Eastern seat if and when his colleagues carry out their intent to seek the intervention of the court.

107 rejected votes

"If my colleagues go to a magisterial recount, we will be ready. There are about 107 rejected votes (ballots) and they swing both ways but we are confident that after a magisterial recount, just like today, we will be declared the victors," a confident McCurdy said.

Buchanan succeeded former Prime Minister P.J Patterson as MP for Westmoreland Eastern in a by-election in 2006. He won his first election by 2,901 votes. He widened the margin to 3,363 in 2007 in the general election, and in 2011 he further expanded it to 4,995 votes. He polled 6,675 votes in 2016 to beat the JLP's Andrea Walters by 2,873, and appeared a safe bet for re-election until the Lawrence shocker.

The PNP has not lost the seat since 1980, when Euphemia Williams upset Patterson in an election that saw the PNP being whipped 51 seats to nine by the JLP.

CLOSEST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN JAMAICA

ONE - Luther Buchanan (PNP) won by a single vote over the Daniel Lawrence of the JLP.

THREE - In 1993, the JLP's Dr Neville Gallimore beat the PNP's Glenville Shaw by three votes in St Ann South Western.

FOUR - In 1955 , Edward VV Allen beat Cleve Lewis by four votes to win St Elizabeth Northern

In 1989, former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer beat the PNP's Emmanuel Cousins by four votes Clarendon South Eastern.

FIVE - In 2016, the PNP's Dr Winston Green scored a five-vote win over the JLP's Dr Norman Dunn in St Mary South Eastern.

SIX - In 1959, Charles D Wright scored a six-vote win over the PNP's Edward VV 'Dawda' Allen in St Elizabeth South West.