FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Director of Elections Glasspole Brown anticipates that by the end of this week he and his team at the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) will be able to say whether any candidates from the local government election have missed the deadline to file expense returns.

The deadline was Monday and anyone who misses it can be penalised.

“They would have gone to different offices across the island. They have close to 70 offices to drop off their returns. So we are collecting them to look to see who is outstanding. We hope to get all of them come in between today and tomorrow. By then we should know if any are missing,” Brown told the Jamaica Observer when asked for an update on Wednesday.

“Later this week we should be in a position to issue a release indicating how much people have satisfied the returns, et cetera,” he added.

The director revealed that, based on the data he has so far received, there had been a steady flow of returns up to the deadline. However, he could not accurately provide a figure of the count so far.

“I know up to Monday quite a few of them were coming in. [But] I don’t have the exact number to tell you if everybody came in already. I am just waiting for everything to come in before I can make a comment,” he said.

A total of 499 candidates, including a handful of independents, contested the election on February 26.

Under Paragraph 53 of the Eighth Schedule of the Representation of the People Act, candidates must submit an election return with the returning officer for the electoraldivision within six weeks after the date of the election.

The forms are available for collection at the office of the returning officer in each constituency.

Under Section 101 of the Representation of the People Act, any candidate who fails to make a return or makes a false declaration when filing commits an offence. If hauled before the Circuit Court and convicted an offender may be slapped with a minimum fine of $20,000 and up to $80,000 or the offender can face imprisonment for a term not less than three years.

In addition to being fined or imprisoned, the court may order that the candidate or agent be disqualified from holding any post of election officer for a period of not less than seven years from the date of conviction.