Member of Parliament for St Mary South Eastern Dr Winston Green is a relieved man today, following a tense magisterial recount that prolonged his stay at Jamaica’s seat of Parliament — Gordon House.

Green eked out a narrow five-vote win over his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) first-time rival, Dr Norman Dunn, to retain the seat that he first won in December 2011, following a win over then Mayor of Port Maria Richard Creary.

The latest development means that the JLP now has a one seat majority — 32-31 over the People’s National Party (PNP) — in the House of Representatives.

“You can imagine the anxiety since this whole thing started. At one time I heard that I lost, then I won, then I lost, and now I won, so it really took a toll on me,” Dr Green admitted to the Jamaica Observer yesterday, shortly after the magisterial recount ended.

The magisterial recount, which began in the Sutton Street Resident Magistrate’s Court, Central Kingston, on Wednesday, was over by mid-afternoon yesterday, and resulted in jubilation for the 7,324 people who voted for the Cuba-trained dentist, over pharmacist Dr Dunn’s 7,319.

Although he secured a narrow victory, Dr Green said that though nervous and anxious, he never doubted that he would have prevailed.

“At no point did I have any doubt that, I would win, but until it happens, you live in hope. I was actually expecting to gain more votes, because some of my ballots were rejected, but it turned out good in the end,” he said.

Dr Green admitted that he found it strange that Resident Magistrate Opal Smith, among her rulings, allowed that a ballot with a dot and not the usual ‘X’, should be given to his challenger instead of settling in the trash heap, but, despite that, felt that the recount was handled professionally.

“I found that one odd, but I thought I would leave everything up to my legal team. Overall, I thought that the magistrate was fair and unbiased, and the team from the Electoral Office also acted professionally throughout the proceedings,” Dr Green told the

Sunday Observer.

The two-term MP, who lives at Cromwelland in the PNP-dominated Belfield Division of the constituency, said that he would be celebrating the moment with his constituents, but later yesterday was scheduled to attend two wakes in his constituency and attend church Sunday morning.

“I attended church last Sunday and I will again this Sunday. I have to give thanks”, said Dr Green, who revealed that he was apprehensive, having to now operate in an environment in which his party was not in Government.

“I have never done it before, but I imagine that it will be more difficult,” he said.

On general election night, February 25, Dr Dunn was declared the winner of the seat by a 127-vote majority, thus giving the JLP 33 seats to the PNP’s 30 in the 63-seat legislature.

However, Director of Elections Orrette Fisher revealed that an error had been made on the original count by a presiding officer in one of the polling divisions, who credited Dr Dunn with votes that ought to have gone to Dr Green.

In the official count, supervised by senior personnel from the Electoral Office of Jamaica, Dr Green won by nine votes, forcing the JLP to request the magisterial recount.

The PNP now has the majority of seats in St Mary — two — to the JLP’s one.

St Mary South Eastern was for many years dominated by the JLP, with Alva Ross seemingly unbeatable for several years.

However, with boundary changes, the seat switched for the first time to the PNP, whose Harry Douglas subjected Ross to a shocking defeat in 1989.

Douglas won the seat again in 1993, 1997, and 2002, but lost by 34 votes in a recount to the JLP’s Tarn Peralto in 2007 — the year the JLP assumed office after spending the previous 18 years in the political wilderness.

Peralto was removed by the JLP for non-performance in 2011, but his replacement, Creary, the councillor for the Richmond Division of the St Mary Parish Council, went down to Dr Green in his first outing in the constituency, having shown prior interest in St Andrew Eastern.