The drama of the recent hotel union elections was heightened on Tuesday when Labour Minister Shane Gibson confirmed that a recount showed that there was a tie for the presidency between Pat Bain of the Rainbow Team and Atlantis bellman Roy Colebrooke, who heads the Justice Team.
Both men got 1,043 votes, according to the official results.
Those results also showed the Justice Team winning 10 of the 12 executive posts, with Rainbow winning the general secretary position and the presidency being up in the air.
This latest development came two days after Department of Labour officials released unofficial results, which put Mr. Bain, the incumbent, ahead by 20 votes.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the union president was contemplating resigning, but Mr. Bain, who is also the president of the National Congress of Trade Unions (NCTU), said there is no truth to those reports.
“Why would I step down?” he asked. “If I lose the election I would move off the scene; the people would have spoken. There are a number of members out there who have given me their support. Why should I move off the scene and leave them?”
Mr. Bain also joined the Justice Team and the United We Stand Committee in calling for new elections.
“I think there should be new elections because there have been accusations of irregularities and it appears that the last count that was supposed to be official irregularities have resurfaced again. So that there would be no doubt in anybodyﾒs mind, I think the whole question of going back to the polls should be the option taken,” Mr. Bain told the Bahama Journal.
On Sunday, he had expressed concern and disappointment after the unofficial results were released and said he was confident that he could work with the Justice Team executives.
It was a comment he repeated when he spoke with the Bahama Journal late Tuesday.
Upon hearing of the tie, Mr. Colebrooke, meanwhile, repeated his demand for new elections.
“If they are now coming and saying that there is a tie between me and Mr. Pat Bain after Iﾒve gone through everything that is wrong in an election then you know what I say? Bring it on to the polls because I strongly believe and I am confident that Justice regardless of the situation would be victorious,” he said.
The official count also resulted in General Secretary Leo Douglas hanging on to the post by three votes. He was ahead by four after the first count over the weekend.
What Mr. Douglas viewed as especially disturbing after the recount was that Nicole Martin of the Rainbow Team, who was reported to have 1,028 votes in the unofficial results, was shown to have actually lost to Samantha Gray of the Justice Team during the recount.
Mr. Douglas said there is no way that the unofficial results could have been so far off given that they showed Ms. Martin winning by 90 votes.
Following the weekend count, angry members of the Justice Team and the United We Stand Committee demanded a new vote, claiming that there were too many discrepancies and that the ballot boxes had been tampered with.
On Tuesday, Mr. Douglas said he too agreed that there should be new elections.
“The problem we will have is that Assistant Treasurer Nicole Martin was up by [90] votes. The ministry will have to establish how she would have lost all of those votes,” he said.
“So we have a legal problem right now. The president was up by 20 votes and it would be most disappointing or surprising to hear [he has lost]. I think the minister needs to think twice before he goes and makes any statements.
“I think we have to agree with the other side that everybody ought to go back now to the polls. I think thatﾒs the best solution because weﾒre not going to sit quietly and allow one of our executives [Ms. Martin, to be mistreated].”
He said the problem is a serious one, and agreed that the elections were “a sham”.
“This whole thing is a big mix-up,” said Mr. Douglas, who added that he doubts that Mr. Bain would resign.
“We would never let the president resign,” he said. “As far as Iﾒm concerned, until the matter is cleared up, the president is still the president and nobody can deny that or change that.”
He said he saw it as a “disgrace” for the authorities to release unofficial results that turned out to be substantially different from the official results, and said it was highly suspicious.
With the Justice Team now holding the vast majority of the executive positions in the countryﾒs largest and most powerful union, as president and general secretary, Mr. Bain and Mr. Douglas would likely face much friction moving ahead given the Justice Teamﾒs substantial voting power on any matters relating to the hotel union.
Itﾒs why even close advisors of Mr. Bain were reportedly urging him to step down on Tuesday.
Minister Gibson, meanwhile, said he was not certain what the next move would be as it relates to determining who the president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union is.
“Weﾒre waiting on the attorney general to advise us,” he said. “It appears that the only option would be a runoff. It seems the most logical thing.”
The minister said the recount took a full 24 hours with Department of Labour officials starting it at 9am Monday and ending around 9am Tuesday.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
