It is the defeated PTr candidate and the petitioner, Cader Sayen-Hossen, and the MSM candidate, Gilbert Bablee, who are at the heart of this verification exercise. Irregularities were detected in the 44,755 Valid Ballot Papers Counted, in 7 out of 30 Counting Rooms of the 07 November 2019 polls, at the Visitation RCA Counting Centre in Vacoas. This verification exercise of the Counting Sheets and Ballot Paper Counted Forms of Constituency No 15 is under the order of the Supreme Court.
The recounting of 45 Sealed Grey Boxes i.e., 120 Counting Sheets will be done under the supervision of the Master & Registrar of the Supreme Court, Anjali Devi Ramdin, and will take place this tomorrow morning at the Special Mobile Force HQ in Vacoas. Elected officials from No. 15 Kushal Lobine, Patrick Assirvaden, Gilbert Bablee, Cader Sayed-Hossen and Returning Officer Marie Esthelle Lambert Henry as well as legal advisors are expected to attend.
After investigation, these are the results of Counting Rooms 1, 3, 8, 11, 21, 24 and 27. The Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and the Electoral Commissioner, Irfan Rahman, found that the total was not divisible by three. The 30 wards counted 134,292 votes but only 134,265 were recorded on the Recapitulation Sheet. The Returning Officer, Marie Esthelle Lambert Henry, reported 27 missing votes. The number of Valid Ballot Papers Counted should therefore have been 44,764, i.e. 134,292 / 3. The Rejected Ballot Papers showed 350 instead of 339, i.e. 11 more.
This exercise will enable a “reconciliation of facts and figures” to be established, which will help the two judges, Benjamin Marie Joseph and Ratna Seetohul-Toolsee, to reach a decision before the Master & Registrar. As a reminder, 49 votes separate Gilbert Bablee, the elected MSM candidate and Cader Sayed-Hossen, the defeated PTr candidate.
