Video: Francis & Gosling Win Mayoral Elections
[Updated: Charles Gosling defeated Carlton Simmons [409-158 votes] to become Mayor of Hamilton, while the election in the east saw Quinell Francis [278 votes] defeat the incumbent Garth Rothwell [177 votes] and Alfonso Harris [23 votes] to become St George’s Mayor.]
Voters are heading to the polls in both St. George’s and Hamilton today [May 7] with the Municipal Elections taking place, with the positions of Hamilton Mayor, St George’s Mayor and Municipal Residents’ Councillors in Hamilton all to be determined.
Polling stations are open from 8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m, with the Corporation of Hamilton polling to take place at tbe Seventh-day Adventist Church Hall on King Street in Hamilton, while the Corporation of St. George’s polling station is located at the Penno’s Wharf Cruise ship terminal.
Charles Gosling, who previously served as Mayor of Hamilton, is set to run against Carlton Simmons for Hamilton Mayor, while the east will see Quinell Francis, Alfonso Harris, and incumbent Garth Rothwell running for St. George’s Mayor.
The nominations for Hamilton Mayor from last month’s Nomination Day
Voters will also be selecting Municipal Residents’ Councillors in Hamilton, choosing between John Holdipp III, Henry Ming, Carlton Johnson, George Scott, Aaron Scott, Derrick Phipps, and RoseAnn Edwards.
There will not be an election for Business Ratepayers Councillors for the City of Hamilton, as there were only four candidates, including John Nicholas Swan, Lawrence Gordon Scott, John Harvey, and Dennis Tucker.
In St. George’s, the Business Ratepayers’ Elections and the Municipal Residents’ Elections were also uncontested. Philip Seaman and Faith Bridges are the St. George’s Business Ratepayers’ Councillors, while the Municipal Residents Councillors are H. Anthony Richardson, Wilfred Bean, Phillip Anderson, Eakin McLaughlin, Elizabeth Christopher, and Jamie Sapsford.
The last Municipal Elections were held in May 2012, and saw Graeme Outerbridge elected as the Mayor of Hamilton, defeating Charles Gosling with 55.33% of the vote, while in St George’s Kenny Bascome was elected Mayor with 66.44% [299 to 151] of the vote over Alfonso Harris.
Update: Video of Mr Simmons and Mr Gosling speaking after the results came in
This election will be held under different guidelines than the 2012 election, with changes made to the Municipalities Act 1923 that affect the business vote.
Earlier this year, Minister of Home Affairs Michael Fahy said, “This Government also took the view that business ratepayers should have the right to representation of their interests, and the appropriate amendments to the Municipalities Act 1923 were made in the Municipalities Amendment Act 2013.”
Minister Fahy said that only individuals who are ordinarily resident in the municipal area [and registered in the parliamentary register] are entitled to be registered as municipal residents; and only owners and occupiers of business premises are qualified to be registered as business ratepayers and be able to cast a vote.
Update: Live updates have ended, you can scroll through them below
Quinell I will be down around 7:45pm to vote for you. Go St. George’s.
7:45 is cutting it close.
Any chance of coming earlier?
Cast my ballot at 8:30
@not so famous, thanks for the update, if the wrong candidate gets ONE vote, we will all know who cast it!!!
@ Kangoocar
How is a candidate the wrong candidate if they followed the correct registration process and then receive votes?
Is the process only democratic if the ‘right candidate’ wins?
Here’s a thought for today & tomorrows…
“A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron”. -Horace Mann, educational reformer (4 May 1796-1859)
May you once again succeed in your endeavor Mayor Charles Gosling…
Can someone tell me how 79 people can be registered to one adress.. that would be a Damm full house….
I believe you are referring to 5 Marsh Lane. If you count again there are 85 voters registered there. I think the Salvation Army shelter only has about a dozen beds. Must be sleeping in shifts. I also noted an old friend who left the island some ten years ago is registered. Since he has since passed away it would be interesting to see if he cast a ballot. SNAFU.
@ full house: If the numbers exceed the accommodations at the Salvation Army Shelter then it be only right for whomever is in charge to clarify this dispute…
I would be interested to know two things if Carlton ” I will take my money in a cheque ” Simmons is elected?? Firstly, will all the parking signs be safe on his side of town and secondly, will I be welcomed on his side of town??? Thankfully I think he has about the same chance as a snowball surviving on the equator as to be elected as Mayor??? Time now for the expected new Mayor Gosling to clean up the mess left by the previous incompetent hand picked plp team!!! You have a big job in front of you Mr Gosling!!!
Yup , someone needs to oversee the $18 Million swap and the Million $ private Trust fund.
LMFAO
If the voters have even a half of a lick of sense this should be a complete runaway.
A note to all municipal voters.
Tha past 3 years have been interesting for both Municipalites and some people have complained. Today is your chance to make a difference!! Make your vote count by exercsing your right to vote before 8pm tonight.
Make your vote count even more by asking anyone else in either municipality to make sure they vote!!
Let’s collectively surprise everyone and have a high turnout for today.
This should be a run away victory for Gosling. Carlton “I wasn’t there” Simmons should not even be running.
God help the city if the likes of CS gets elected.
Carlton will win please vote with likes and dislikes
I have had to interact with CS on more than one occasion and would not trust him to run a lemonade stand. One who needs the endorsement of others should bear that in mind when interacting with people.
I just voted and found it very strange. I was asked if I was a resident or a business and after I replied I was directed to one side of the room. It wasn’t clear at first but I soon discovered that they were separating the residents to one side and the businesses to the other and using separate voting boxes to receive the paper ballot. How is this democratic? Are we not all equal? Are our votes not equal? Why is this separation necessary and and how is it legal? If you correctly registered to vote, prior to the election you have a right to vote and separation of us as people and our ballots into separate boxes only further divides the community. There may be some logical explanation of this BUT IT IS STILL WRONG!
don’t ever believe that we are all equal…that’s just a pacifier for the unnerved…
In one sense I agree with you, but the polling stations should have had either a sign posted to direct those who are residents and those who are business owners. The purpose of separating the R’s from the B’s is because those who own a business in the corporations zone are not necessarily resident of the parish the corporations are located in, also I think they most likely done it like that to garner a percentage of the resident and business voters. Final results will give a clear picture of what percentage in each area voted or didn’t vote. I am sure some voters didn’t vote
I suspect the answer might be for the separation in ballots for R’s and B’s due to different Councillors/Nominees with all voting for Mayor. It makes counting the ballots easier I suppose without trying to separating them first to start counting.
@Michael,
The new voting legislation has particular councilors representing ratepayers and different councilors representing individual residents. It makes the ballots easier to count if they are in discreet boxes. There isn’t anything sinister about it.
I understand what you are saying but what does that have to do with separating us before we cast our vote. When they call out your name, each councilor can take note of who is standing at the table.
It was probably done this way because they only created one ballot form with all mayoral, business and resident candidates. Since some councilors are representing rate payers, only the ratepayers get to vote on those councilors. Same with residential representatives. One ballot form for each of the two classes would eliminate the need to separate the ballots in advance. Ideally, electronic ballots would be the best solution.
If both candidates approved of this method then it should be considered fair…But maybe it has something to do with them that are registered at the Salvation Army Shelter e.g. them who are eligible and them who aren’t eligible to vote.
Hope the new mayor is more efficient than the vote counters!! How long does this really take???
Just as a matter of intrest how do you prove you live at the shelter…
when I vote I show my drivers license. .
what do these guys show…BELCO bill..lol
Alphonso sounds like the only one who is not making anything up. Good luck today.
So….who won?
It’s 9.30. Can’t take that long to count.
WHAT HAPPEN TO KENNETH BASCOME, LOOKING TO SEEING HIM IN ST. GEORGES. oba DIDN’T RELEACE HIM YET. POOR KENNY, NEXT TIME. BACK FIRER.
Are you speaking English ?
Hit the road Jack…and don’t you come back no more no more no more no more! Yes I am talking to you Carlton!
)))
Duh. I wasn’t worried not one bit. There is no way CS would have won. If Junior Ming was running against him he’ll still lose.
Congrats….. Nice to see Mr. Gosling “Seal the Deal”
There”s power in prayer! I want to thank everyone that voted for Mayor Charles Gosling and Ms. Quinell Francis…the new Mayors of the City of Hamilton and Town of St. George’s
Hallelujah, praise the Lord!!!
There are 158 people in Hamilton that have no clue what they’re doing. Amazing.
They want the CofH to continue as an entertainment. The Corp under Gosling will be somewhat dull and relatively efficient as it has been previously. Hardly a source for shocks and laughs. Now the clowns have to leave the ring.
I, for one, am not sorry to see them go. That show went on for far too long.
Saliva tests for the 158
Why does Mr. Simmons talk about a “resident mayor” and a “business mayor”? The mayor should represent all of the people who make up the city of Hamilton. The people who own a business in the city should have a vote and the people you live in the city should have a vote. The mayor should represent ALL of them not one or the other.
Why in our country do we feel that the only way to compete is to divide people? If each mayoral candidate offers his/her approach to how the city should be run for the businesses AND the residents, then the business owners AND the residents can decide who represents them best and vote for that candidate.
In a mature and civilized democracy, the majority AND the minority should be considered by our government representatives. I would say that special attention to the needs of the minority should be given to ensure that their issues are not discarded just because they might not have the majority to sway the vote. That is a society that I look forward to living in.
I run a small business in the city of Hamilton, and I congratulate Mr. Gosling and remind him not to forget the people who live within this city. A vibrant city is one with a thriving business community AND a thriving residential community!
A great day for election results.
Team Hamilton is finally kicked to the curb where they belong and Labour in the UK took a sound thrashing from the conservatives.
Congrats Quinell, go St. George!!
Weeeeeeellllll……..ahm gonna let de wind blow an see what we got for the effort of voting and …..hope ahm got de choice right…..you don’t really know do you?…. Dey alllll ssy this n’that…you vote dein money goes mission…..what bothers me is…you have no recourse…de police removed Queens pips off their uniform….now they work for Bda.. . we are screwed now….
Congrats to mayor Gosling….now let’s get town sorted out…
Congratulations to all the winners, now the hard work begins. Good Luck to all.
The labour leader took a thrashing in the UK …..score (1) for independent territories (0) Ed Milliband.I’m sure we’re not the only destination to see the back of his head.
Congratulations Quinnell very proud of you – GO EEP!!!
And the government was successful in their strategy. Enough said…