Counting for NCD seat to continue despite protest

COUNTING for the National Capital District regional seat will continue even though scrutineers of candidates protest and do not want to be in the counting room, election manager Alwyn Jimmy, pictured, says.
He said election officials would not wait for the scrutineers if they wanted to protest and be absent from the counting venue.
“The law does not say that we wait for the scrutineers to come and then we start the counting,” Jimmy said.
“We are running the election not because of the scrutineers but we are running the election based on the law. Even though we have one scrutineer or even no scrutineer present in the counting room, we will still proceed with the counting.”
Jimmy said whatever was being counted was clear and the counting officials were not adding or subtracting anything.
“Whatever was cast by the people and is in the ballot boxes, we are counting those ballot papers,” he said.
“We cannot do anything about these ballot boxes and ballot papers in the counting room because eyes of all people are on those boxes and papers.”
Jimmy said if the scrutineers and their candidates were not happy with the counting, they could file their objection in the Court of Disputed Returns.