Demonstrating members of the Justice Team forced the closure of Worker's House on Monday as complaints of voting irregularities in the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union's elections of last Friday intensified.
Members of both the Justice Team and the United We Stand Committee called for the results to be declared void and the entire vote to be taken again.
After all of day of counting, up to press time there were still no official results.
However, members of the Pat Bain-led Rainbow Team ﾖ responding to the forced closure of the unionﾒs Workerﾒs House office ﾖ fired back, claiming that those rivals are irresponsible and not suitable to lead the hotel union.
Even as officials from the Department of Labour spent hours recounting votes Monday, consultant to the United We Stand Committee, Dr. Thomas Bastian, said that exercise was pointless because the security of the ballot boxes containing those votes had already been compromised.
"What was the recount (on Monday) doing?" he questioned.
"It was just fooling the people. The Bahamian people should not stand for that kind of thing and this matter must go to the International Labour Organisation to complain about the suppressing of rights in the trade union movement in this country."
Dr. Bastian claimed that the elections were also tainted by other irregularities, including the exclusion of a candidate from the election process.
According to Dr. Bastian, Director of Labour Harcourt Brown convened a meeting with all of the candidates prior to the hotel unionﾒs annual general meeting on May 24th.
He said at that meeting union members nominated a total of 38 candidates to contest the various posts, however, when the ballots were presented on election day only 37 candidates were listed on the ballots, with United We Stand Committee candidate Joseph Bethel being left off.
Dr. Bastian also alleged that union officials refused to make available to either the Justice Team or the United We Stand Committee clear rules which would govern the voting process or a register of persons who were eligible to vote in the election.
Stating that the candidates had agreed that following an initial count Friday night they would collectively remove the ballot boxes to the Grove Police Station for safekeeping until an official count could be held on Monday, Dr. Bastian said Mr. Brown was not authorised to move the boxes from the custody of the police to his office.
Along with the hotel union and all of its officials, the veteran trade unionist chastised labour officials for what he described as their interference in the elections.
"We condemn the Ministry of Labour for what we consider to be conduct that is not in keeping with fair and democratic principles of an election which has nothing to do with the Ministry," said Dr. Bastian
"The election of any trade union is the responsibility of the trade union and all persons who are participating in it. The Ministry has two roles: One is to supervise and the other is to certify."
Expressing concern of his own, however, general secretary of the hotel union, Leo Douglas, claimed that the disgruntled candidates ﾖ mainly from the Justice Team ﾖ who organised a demonstration outside of Workerﾒs House recklessly compelled union leaders to close the offices on Monday.
He branded the protesters as not being fit to be leaders.
"I think the government should step in now and do something because this isnﾒt good for this country and it isnﾒt good for the economy," he said.
"We must be careful who we elect to these kind of things like unions because our country is in a critical stage where investors are coming in and investing and if people donﾒt have any experience they are going to wreck everything. I donﾒt want people to take it lightly. Thatﾒs my concern."
According to Mr. Douglas, the confusion that developed after the initial count on Friday was likely caused by some candidates focusing only on the results from the voting station set up at the Bahamas Union of Teachers headquarters, rather than the results from all of the voting stations, and consequently developing an erroneous belief that they had been elected.
He also rejected Dr. Bastianﾒs claim that labour officials were not entitled to take the disputed ballot boxes into their possession.
"I have never known in the history of this country where unions get involved in the Ministryﾒs business," he said.
"Under the law it says that the Ministry is responsible for supervising elections and if it is done legally, after that they will certify the (vote). Thatﾒs the only obligation the Ministry has to the union."
The unofficial results showed Mr. Douglas clinging to the general secretary position by four votes.
Presidential candidate for the Justice Team, Roy Colbrooke, meanwhile, said his members of his team were still displeased on Monday about the events surrounding last Fridayﾒs election, including the alleged refusal by hotel union officials to make a register of eligible voters available to all candidates and the removal of ballot boxes.
Members of the Justice Team also reiterated demands that the election process be conducted fairly.
According to the unofficial results, Mr. Colebrooke lost to Pat Bain by 20 votes. But the three vice presidential positions would be filled by Justice Team members if the official results are in line with the unofficial results.
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
