Chief Elections Officer Herman St. Helen has firmly defended the credibility of Saint Lucia’s 2025 General Election, confirming that a full recount of ballots in Dennery South was completed at the request of United Workers Party candidate Benson Emile.
St. Helen said the recount not only clarified confusion over rejected ballots but also strengthened the margin of victory for the winning candidate, Labour Party representative Alfred Prospere.
Explaining the findings, St. Helen said, “And what we found that, in fact, there were only 23 rejected ballots and not 145. So it says that the presiding officers within that district, there was an issue with the rejected ballots.” He added that once the recount was completed, “those which were called rejected, they were not in fact rejected ballots. So the number of rejects reduced to only 23.”
He outlined what the corrected tally meant for both candidates. “It means therefore that in the rejects, Mr. Emile got 51 more votes and Mr. Prospere got 71 more votes. It means that Mr. Prospere’s margin of victory increased by 20 to 59 and is not the 49 initially reported.”
St. Helen also confirmed that several individuals were taken into police custody in connection with incidents on Election Day. “I can verify that a number of arrests were made. However, those matters are still under investigation by the police. Upon completion of the investigations, then I can update you. At the moment, as it stands, what I can tell you is that yes, a couple arrests were made during election day.”
Commenting on recommendations raised by international observer groups, the Chief Elections Officer said the Electoral Department had already been examining some of the proposed reforms before the election. One such proposal involved creating additional voting opportunities for law enforcement officers.
“One of our suggestions early on was to have the policemen vote in the police stations where they work. That would have increased the number of polling stations. However, because of logistical reasons, it was not possible,” he explained. St. Helen added that the department intends to revisit recommendations from CARICOM and the OAS and is hopeful that “we will implement them, we will see changes.”
He also dismissed widespread social media claims that ballot boxes had gone missing.
“There are a number of people that speaking about ballot boxes being stolen and missing, this is not possible. It is highly, highly improbable for something like that to happen,” St. Helen said. He explained that strict procedures prevent such occurrences.
“Because each electoral district has a number of ballot boxes assigned to them. At the end of the election, at the end of the night, each of those ballot boxes must be returned to the returning officer. The returning officer has a count of those boxes. They have the facts. So I will not certify something correct if the boxes are missing.”
He said many of the claims circulating online and on talk shows were designed to undermine public confidence, but the facts of the recount and the strict chain of custody for ballots speak for themselves.