The Constituted Authority, established pursuant to section 44(A)(l) of the
Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 1997, on the 2nd day of January,
1998, filed a Notice of Motion in the Supreme Court seeking to have declared
void, the taking of the poll in the constituency of West Central St. Andrew.
Section 44 (A)(l) enacts as follows:
"There shall be established on the issuing of an election
notice by a returning officer under section 22(1), a body
to be known as the Constituted Authority which shall
continue in force for a period ending six months after
the day referred to in section 22(2)(b)"
Section 52 A (1) of the said act stipulates:
"Where after the taking of a poll the Constituted
Authority or a candidate is of the opinion 'that during
the taking of the polling circumstances existed which
could constitute grounds as specified in section 37 of
the Election Petitions Act, the Constituted Authority
may, on its own motion or at the request of the
candidate, make an application under that section to
the Election Court to have the taking of the poll
declared void.
Section 37 of the Election Petitions Act states:
"The Constituted Authority may, subject to section 38,
apply to the Election Court for the voiding of the
taking of a poll on one or more of the following
grounds (a)
that the total number of votes cast in a
constituency or electoral division exceeds the
number of electors on the official list for that
constituency or electoral division;
(b) that ballot boxes have been stolen or destroyed
or have in any manner been tampered with
and the number of electors on the list of
electors for the polling stations is more than
the difference in the number of votes cast for