New Brunswick judge upholds election results in Saint John riding

Court confirms result in Saint John-Harbour Almost a year after N.B. election, Liberal Gerry Lowe's squeaker of a win has been upheld. Mike Cameron reports.

A New Brunswick judge has dismissed a request to throw out the results of last year's provincial election in the riding of Saint John Harbour.

Last September, Liberal candidate Gerry Lowe won the riding by 10 votes over Progressive Conservative Barry Ogden.

A recount backed the initial results, but Ogden applied to have them thrown out over irregularities.

Some of the documented irregularities included forms not being signed by election staff and voters failing to have their names struck from forms after voting.

Lowe says he's pleased with the decision and hopes the matter can be put to rest.

"I'm happy it's over," he said Friday.

Lowe says the decision removes a cloud of uncertainty.

"I think the whole thing became not 'it was Gerry Lowe who cheated, but it was Elections New Brunswick that didn't do a good job.' But I was still caught up in the fire because that suspicion was always there."

In a statement, Ogden says the decision wasn't the one he was hoping for, but he believes "as a result of this we will see improvements to our electoral system."

Ogden alleged 71 voting irregularities, including 28 people who filled out the wrong paperwork.

But Justice Hugh McLellan said: "After considering the limited evidence, in my opinion Mr. Ogden has not met his burden of establishing on a balance of probabilities that any of those 28 people voted when they were not entitled to do so."

Many people in Lowe's riding welcomed the end of the court case.

"That's a long time to be feeling like he's under the microscope, and it's unfortunate there was such a tight close outcome," said community organizer Penny Eisenhauer.

Mary Lesage, who is with the South End Citizen's Group, was also pleased.

"Whether it was by ten votes for 110 votes or 1010 votes, he was always our MLA," Lesage said. "He acted like it and that's the way we've treated him."

With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron and The Canadian Press.