Jerome Reynolds, Gleaner Writer

The final election result for the East Central St James constituency could be known this afternoon.

The final numbers have been the subject of a magisterial recount since Monday.

The People’s National Party’s Cedric Stewart has filed an election petition challenging the results contending that there were irregularities.

The Jamaica Labour Party’s Edmund Bartlett was declared the winner after polling 6,337 votes to Stewart’s 6,172.

Clayton Morgan, one of Stewart’s attorneys, says his client has been picking up additional votes during the magisterial recount.

According to Mr Morgan, at the end of counting yesterday Stewart was leading.

Yesterday, presiding magistrate Sandra Wong-Small threw out the 162 rejected ballots from Polling Division #50 saying she could not determine with any degree of certainty what was the intention of the voters when they marked the ballots.

Concerns were raised about those ballots after it was discovered that there were markings beside the names of all three candidates who contested the seat.

The magistrate has also halted the counting of ballots from Polling Division #36 because of a missing polling book.

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