The PUP has formally filed an election petition in the Supreme Court - asking the court to strike out the election outcome in San Pedro - where the UDP won by a fairly close margin.
The petition points to a a number of what the PUP says are significant irregularities with the balloting.
The Courtenay Coye law firm made the filing and the 9 page document argues that the election was not carried out in line with set regulations and the non compliance affected the outcome of the election.
They point to three main irregularities: first the allegation of 275 missing ballots from one box; second, 688 ballots that are unaccounted for in the final tally; and, third, the information from elections and boundaries that 550 persons cast their votes after the polls closed at 6:00.
The petition argues that these discrepancies affected the result of the election, and the outcome should be declared void.
The petition also points to a number of additional discrepancies.
No date has been set for hearing.
We note that election petitions - and there have been very many filed over the decades since self government - do not have a history of success in the courts. This is the first one in memory filed in relation to the outcome of a municipal election.
In San Pedro, the UDP Mayor Danny Guerrero won by only 38 votes, while 6 UDP councillors were elected by an average margin of 250 to 300 votes.
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