Central Voting Bureau representative Anastacio Baker about to open one of the ballot boxes for the recount.
PHILIPSBURG--A number of errors are being uncovered in the total recount of the votes from last week’s parliamentary elections, which the Central Voting Bureau began on Tuesday morning after hearing the objections and concerns from political parties.
During the recount, several candidates lost votes when valid ballots were deemed invalid and several candidates received additional votes when invalid ballots were found to be valid. At some polling stations discrepancies in the number of votes were ironed out.
During the recount, it also became clear that not all polling stations were using the same methods. For example, the ballots at one polling station were written on by polling station staffers. The polling station staffers wrote numbers on the first ballot in a batch to indicate how many votes a particular candidate received.
In other cases, while some polling stations labelled the envelopes containing the ballots, some polling stations did not label the envelopes to identify their content more easily.
It was also clear that many voters were either unaware of how to properly cast their ballot or deliberately wrote on the ballot in a manner to make it be deemed invalid.
One voter signed their name on the ballot under a party's list.
Some voters marked multiple candidates while voting, some marked other parts of the ballot paper after circling the candidate of their choice, wrote outside the circle amongst other things.
Additionally, some voters sent messages on their ballot papers. One ballot had the word “Crooks” written on it. Another had the words “Me a bad man” written on it. Another had the word “No” written on it.
Up to press time the votes were still being counted. The Central Voting Bureau will pronounce the official results at the end of its recount.
Central Voting Bureau representative Anastacio Baker shows one of the ballots to party representatives during the recounting process on Tuesday.
