Prime minister may challenge elections

? As election workers work toward a final ballot count to certify Monday night’s general elections, Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller is still refusing to concede defeat.

Preliminary results continue to give the Jamaica Labor Party a slim majority in the 60-seat parliament, with the country’s elections office reporting that instead of 31 seats to the People’s National Party’s 28, the JLP and leader Bruce Golding now have 32.

That still makes for a slim majority, but if the gain holds up, it could put the JLP in a better position if Simpson-Miller goes ahead with her threat to challenge some of the JLP’s winning seats.

Simpson-Miller has raised the possibility of challenging some JLP members on the basis they hold U.S. citizenship. At least two JLP members have been dogged by allegations that they are in violation of the Jamaican Constitution because they have sworn allegiance to another country, and therefore cannot be members of parliament.

“We are conceding no victory to the Jamaica Labor Party until the final count,” Simpson-Miller, who is also president of the PNP, told supporters last night.