CAMBRIDGE, St James — Former tourism minister Edmund Bartlett retained the East Central St James seat for the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) after a magisterial recount, which ended Thursday night.

Bartlett won the seat over the People’s National Party’s Cedric Stewart by 174 votes — polling 6,382 to Stewart’s 6,208.

At the end of the recount — which began Monday at the St James Resident Magistrate Court, Cambridge, and was presided over by Resident Magistrate Sandra Wong-Small — an elated Bartlett told members of the media that was vindicated by the results.

“We are happy, of course, for the people of East St James. We have always known this. The magistrate only confirmed pretty much what we knew from the first night,” Bartlett said, referring to the December 29 polls, which his party lost after serving only four years out of its five-year term.

The PNP swept the polls, winning 42 of the 63 parliamentary seats.

On Thursday, Bartlett bemoaned the inconsistencies which he said dogged the electoral process in that constituency and called for a probe into the matter. “There was a blotch which I believe must be dealt with in a broader sense,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett was represented by attorneys George Soutar, Frank Phipps, George Thomas and his son, Martyn.

Meantime, Stewart — who said he was satisfied with his overall performance in the elections — said he expected the results but was disenchanted over irregularities which occurred on Election Day. “The recount was just to count the ballots that were in the boxes and at this stage we expected this result. We always maintained that our contention was with irregularities with procedures which took place on Election Day and we will still, on the advise and consultation with our lawyers, see the next step,” Stewart told reporters Thursday night.

His team of lawyers included Clayton Morgan, Abe Dabdoub and Raymond Clough.

The final count following the December election showed Bartlett polling 6,337 votes to Stewart’s 6,172.

Independent candidate Roystan Richards got 24 votes.

A dissatisfied Stewart filed for a magisterial recount days after the final tally was announced. At the time he expressed dissatisfaction over the “defacing” of 162 ballots in polling division 50, which he said contained all the ballots of Election Day workers in the constituency.

From that box, Stewart got 247 votes and Bartlett received 45, while there were 162 rejects.

Bartlett, too, had expressed concern about aspects of the poll, particularly about the “unusually large numbers” of rejected ballots in polling division 50.

Earlier this week, RM Wong-Small threw out the 162 rejected ballots and did not award them to any of the candidates.