PPP observer quizzed on poll audit notes
By Kester Morris
An observer for the People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) yesterday testified that, in his mind, questions had been raised about the integrity of some ballot boxes that he had observed being examined during the audit process that followed the 1997 elections. This testimony was delivered by Desmond Morian before Justice Claudette Singh when the election petition hearing continued. Raphael Trotman, counsel for the petitioner, Esther Perreira pointed out that Morian's testimony conflicted with a report prepared by the PPP/Civic on the audit process. That document, an exhibit of the court, proclaimed on Page 13 that no box was found with any evidence that its integrity could be questioned. Trotman's cross-examination of Morian came after the witness had been led in his evidence-in-chief by Jeanamime Munroe, who is associated with Doodnauth Singh, counsel for the Chief Election Officer, Stanley Singh. Munroe had the witness relate that he was an organiser at Freedom House (the PPP's Robb Street Headquarters) and that he had been a member of the PPP observer team. That team included Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Joseph O'Lall and Eddie Rodney, MP, all of whom have testified before Justice Singh. Morian told the court that as part of his duties, he had prepared some notes. These notes were tendered into evidence, after which Morian was grilled by Trotman on some deviations from procedure that his notes had revealed. Before starting his cross-examination however, Trotman pointed out to Morian that his notes, had firstly not been prepared on the standard PPP observer's form and that, secondly, they had been prepared on May 22, some eight days before the Audit Commission submitted its own report. As such, Trotman remarked that it should not have been possible for Morian to have been an observer on May 22 given that the Commission had completed its work by then. Morian, however, stood by his notes, and he was then made to corroborate selected comments made when he was observing boxes from Regions 4, 6 and 10. His notes from Region 4 spoke of several ballot boxes being found with no seals and\or no locks as well as containing "odd" voter ID cards or cards that should not have been in that particular box and district. Other notes revealed that some bags had had voter ID cards from two divisions, when they were only supposed to have cards for one division. As Trotman read the notes out loud and Morian corroborated them, the court was also informed that, in several cases, padlocks had had to be cut to access some ballot boxes. In a small number of cases, Morian's notes also highlighted some boxes which were found with seals and on one occasion, also revealed that a ballot box from Region Four had contained a Voter ID card from Region Five. Ballot boxes were also found which had no problems with either seals, locks or the number of cards but Trotman had the witness concede that Region Four had had a great degree of problems with the locks, seals and cards. Asked whether he had relayed his concerns about the absence of seals to anyone, Morian said that he had told the person in charge of the PPP\C observer team. However, he said that he was not aware of any action having been taken by that person. Morian also confessed to the court that he was not in a position to dispute a certain section of the CARICOM Audit Commission's report which noted that, while the vast majority of SOPs were said to be submitted rather than placed in ballot boxes, a number of these were unavailable. He also said that he could not dispute another statement that a significant number of electors voted without ID cards. Morian's testimony yesterday followed that of another PPP\Civic observer - Eddie Rodney, MP. On that occasion, Rodney had been cross-examined by Peter Britton, Trotman's associate as well as Saphier Hussein, leader and representative of the National Independent Party (NIP). He had told Hussein that he was unaware of any unsigned SOPs being discovered during the audit process. Rodney had made it clear that, during the audit process, his role had not been to questions SOPs but rather to observe the propriety of the polls without necessarily interfering with the duties of the CARICOM Audit Commission. Both Rodney and Morian will return to court on Friday when they will face cross-examination by Rex McKay, SC, counsel for former President Desmond Hoyte. The elections petition hearing itself will, however, continue as usual today.
|