The Ujae Atoll parliament race between Caios Lucky and Muller was tied at 117-all after all votes were counted from the November 21 national election.
Muller, who has chaired the parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and aggressively conducted oversight of government spending and performance, said Wednesday he will challenge the results. The recount results were released late Wednesday.
An issue hovering over the result is two challenged absentee votes from Ebeye Island “The reason why the two votes were not counted is because at first electoral representatives on Ebeye could not locate their names on the electoral register because they used their married last names to vote,” said Muller. “However, their maiden names are in the register. Patrick Bing, Ebeye Electoral officer, has now identified them. In fact, Monday (last) week, Chief Electoral Officer Joseph Jorlang told him to open (the ballots) in front of poll watchers but cancelled at the last minute. I don’t know the reason.”
On Wednesday this week, following the recount, Muller said: “I am still pushing for the claims (ballots) to be opened and counted.”
The two Ujae voters from Ebeye, Woonam Joe Jibon and Jibwini Jaime Batlok have filed statements in an effort to get their votes counted. They said they have been registered to vote from Ujae since 1981, and had voted in past elections under their married names without problems. They both said that on November 21, when they went to vote, “Electoral representatives said they could not locate (their names) on the electoral register” and so treated the ballots as “challenged.”
In the Marshall Islands, a person whose name cannot be located on the voting list at a polling station can still vote, but the ballot is put into an envelope that is stamped “challenged” and the voter’s identity must be vetted by tabulators before the ballot can be counted.
