PAM’s Deputy Leader fears Supervisor of Elections in bed with Authorities to rig Confirmation Process!!

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

Eugene Hamilton, PAM’s Deputy Leader and Candidate for Constituency Number Eight

“Your attack on me by letter directed to law enforcement authorities demonstrates exactly what I feared, which is, that you are in bed with the Authorities to rig the process that is taking place, rather than present a transparent process of which we can all be proud.”

Hamilton made this statement in a letter of response to one sent to him by the Supervisor of Elections following a previous letter he [Hamilton] wrote complaining about inconsistencies and inaccuracies observed during the Confirmation Process in Constituency Number Eight.

In a letter, dated May 27, 2008, the Supervisor of Elections acknowledged a letter written by Hamilton on May 21, 2008 stating it was drawn to his attention by workers at the Mobile Centre at the Pavilion and the Community Centre in Cayon that on several occasion Hamilton was seen walking in and out of the Centres, “which you are not entitled to do, unless you are signing as a witness for someone who is being confirmed”.

“It would appear that you are doing things to create acrimony and at the same time try to discredit the officers who are dedicated to their jobs. It seems by your actions that you are bent on disrupting the process by looking over the shoulders of persons being confirmed,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin asked Hamilton to desist from doing same and noted that no such problems were experienced by the workers from any other politician. “From 22nd May to 26th May 2008, I have received more complaints about your behaviour than all the other politicians combined,” Benjamin added.    ~~Adz:Right~~

He also sought Hamilton’s cooperation for not going into the building in an attempt to upset the work being undertaken unless he has legitimate reasons. “My understanding,” he continued, “is that your last act, you have gone into the building to take photographs perhaps with the intent to mislead the public into believing that something sinister is being done at the Confirmation Center.”

He also wrote that in the past months Hamilton had been trying very hard to create confusion at the Electoral Office and that his current actions are “designed to engender discontent and get me personally involved so that it can be said I have something which I do not know about”.

“I have drawn to your attention before we moved from the old office at East Independence Square Street, that you were trying to develop an atmosphere whereby you can accuse me of things which the former Supervisor had already resolved. My words to you were and I quote ‘I notice that you are trying to pick a fight with me’ which I never allowed to materialise,” Benjamin said.

Pastor Benjamin concluded by telling Hamilton all he needed is for him to allow the staff of the Electoral Office to perform their duties without interruption.

In response, Hamilton said none of the charges indicated in the letter are accurate and as the Supervisor of Elections Benjamin has the responsibility to ensure any charges he alleges are correct since “you have indulged the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police”.

“Has it not dawned on you that the accusations may not be well founded and that such accusations are a reflection of that fact, that on the first day of the Confirmation process in Cayon, I brought matters to your attention causing you to give directions by phone to the officer in charge over which she is happy?” Hamilton said.

Hamilton told the Supervisor of Elections that if he had been conducting the affairs of his office in a fair and transparent manner he would have known that at the Community Centre in Cayon “there is an office in the Center, commandeered by the Labour Party in which there is a laptop and printer outfitted in that office for the use of the Labour Party, where there is connectivity of the computers that are online to the database of the Electoral Office”.  ~~Adz:Right~~

The Deputy Political Leader said that is a direct interference with the data that is being collated each day of the Confirmation Process. “If the Labour Party can be in that area eavesdropping or online to the database of the Electoral Office,” he stressed, “I have every right to photograph or observe their conduct.”

Hamilton accused Benjamin of failing in his duty to ensure information that was collected by persons under his direction was confidentially kept.

“Has it been reported to you that the photograph that was taken had nothing to do with your office but with the Labour Party? Has it also been reported to you that the officer in charge came from her indoor safe abode to direct accusations at me that I am foolish to raise concerns (not from inside the building but from the outside open grounds) that the process was been tainted by the Labour Party having access to the room where your office has connectivity to the online data?” he asked.

Hamilton noted that the officer in charge would try her best to retaliate because he had brought the matters to Benjamin’s attention on the first day, which caused the Supervisor of Elections to give her directions. “But I do not understand your attack on me with unfounded accusations as the Supervisor of Elections.”

“The penultimate paragraph of your letter highlights a deep seated hatred that you harbour over a matter and circumstances that I considered that we were being friendly. The unsettled matter of persons who live in the Shadwell Estate area who have fraudulently registered in St. Peters where they do not reside, aided By Agents of the Labour Party Candidate or by himself, for which they, the registered persons, the Candidate or his Agents ought to be penalised according to the law.

“I suggested to you on the occasion to which you refer, that I would ask you to exercise your function under Section 27 of the SR&O and you jokingly said there was no need, because your office was instituting a measure of which we can all be proud,” Hamilton said.

He also noted that he did not petition the Supervisor of Elections’ office to carry out that exercise under Section 27 as was his right to do.

“Bringing that matter up in this correspondence and accusing me of picking a fight with you and trying to engender discontent is most disingenuous and does not reflect the virtues of a man whose spiritual teachings I have respected all these years. What you have written is deserving of an apology. For the record, let me state that I am perhaps the most cooperative politician that deals with your office and that is a historical fact,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton advised Benjamin that the person who directs the Confirmation Process at the point of entrance in Cayon is an activist of the Labor Party working in the Attorney General’s Office, and was given leave to carry out the Party’s work.

He asked Benjamin: “Can you explain why that activist, Ms. Violet Newman, is the person who is administering the distribution of cards for entering the room for confirmation thereby giving her direct access to the customers of your office? Is your office paying her to carry out the function that you have advised me by phone last Thursday, is the remit of the Police Force? Are you aware that there is a group of activists that are camped out at the site accusing persons of being ungrateful when they appear to be registered? Do you realise that there are citizens that refuse to go to the Confirmation Process in Cayon because of the intimidation by activists of the Labour Party who camp out at the site and inside the building that you occupy?”

Hamilton suggested that the Supervisor of Elections visit the Cayon Centres to assess the situation and preserve his good name “if you still have a good name and that of the office you were appointed”.

The PAM’s Deputy Leader assured the Supervisor of Elections that his copying of the letter to the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Police does not scare him “but reinforces that you are not interested in transparency, fairness or integrity, so you will use intimidation to cover up your conduct and uphold that of my opponent and the Labour Party. Such conduct I resent and reject”.