Election petition adjourned pending Onchan vote recount

Supervised vote recount ordered, by consent

In Edge v Callin (CHP 26/0130) (03.11.26), Deemster Corlett has ordered, by consent, a supervised recount of ballots cast in the constituency of Onchan in the 2026 General Election.

The Court’s jurisdiction to deal with an election petition derives from s 116 of the Elections (Keys and Local Authorities) Act 2020. The procedure is set out in Schedule 1.

An election petition must be filed: “within 28 days after the return has been made to the Clerk of the Rolls to the member to whose election the petition relates” (paragraph 3(1)).

In this petition, the Petitioner was a candidate; the Respondent was the Deputy Returning Officer; and the Attorney General a Noticed Party.

Paragraph (3) of the consent order recites:

“Pursuant to the powers granted to His Honour the First Deemster under Regulation 57(1) of the Elections (Keys) Regulations 2021 (“the Regulations”) [*] there shall be a supervised opening, inspection and recount of all of the sealed packets of counterfoils and all counted ballot papers (“the Election Papers”) cast in the general election held on 24th September 2026 for the Constituency of Onchan (“the Constituency”) currently in the custody of the Clerk of the Rolls (“the Supervised Recount”)…”.

The order then sets out the various procedural steps to be followed for the Supervised Recount.

It is to be supervised by the Chief Registrar at a secure room at the Isle of Man Courts of Justice.

These steps include permitting the attendance of all candidates (paragraph 3(d)) and any accredited member of the press (paragraph 3(g)).

At the conclusion of the process the Respondent, as Deputy Returning Officer, will prepare a report confirming the result of the Supervised Recount (paragraph (4)).

The Petitioner was required to pay £500 security for costs. The election petition itself has been adjourned.

* The Elections (Keys) Regulations 2021 were approved by Tynwald on 16th March 2021.

CPA Election Observation Preliminary Statement

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association BIMR Election Observation Mission Preliminary Statement was published on 29th September 2026.

Under the heading “Counting and Results”, it stated (at p. 9):

“For the first time, Deputy Returning Officers were given the option of using a new counting board known as the “Kangaroo board”. Four constituencies opted to use the system.

The count commenced on time and was conducted transparently. No recounts took place. The Mission noted that vote reconciliation procedures were generally undertaken in accordance with recommendations made following the 2021 election.

Observers reported some inconsistencies in the implementation of procedures across polling and counting locations. While these did not affect the integrity of the process, they indicate the importance of continued training and guidance for election officials.”

In its Final Report in 2021, the CPA BIMR Election Observation Mission had stated (at p. 17):

“Across the twelve counts, the number of ballot papers received was verified at the start of the count. However, as voters were able to vote for more than one candidate on a single ballot paper, the number of votes cast did not equal the number of ballot papers received. Therefore, there should be an additional stage in the verification process, to establish the number of votes cast. This would avoid confusion and a lack of clarity concerning the number of votes cast.* However, this additional verification stage does not take place.

Recommendation 9: In addition to verifying the number of valid ballot papers, verifying the number of votes cast could be introduced as a separate verification stage of the counting process.

* For example, in the Douglas South constituency, 2295 voters cast a ballot paper with either 1 or 2 votes on each paper. Therefore, the minimum number of votes cast was 2295 and the maximum was 4590. After the vote count, it was announced that 4132 votes had been counted, although this number had not been verified separately before the start of the vote count. Thus, there was a potential variance of around 10% between the maximum number of votes possible and the number of votes counted. In close elections, this variance could lead to the possibility of recounts or challenges as the number of valid votes is never ascertained as part of the verification process.”

Note for practitioners: Ms Edge’s election petition has been adjourned, in order to allow a supervised vote recount. This is now scheduled for 10th November 2026.

Disclaimer: professional advice should be sought before applying any information in a given case.

For advice on litigation relating to Isle of Man constitutional and administrative law, contact Coren Law.

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See also Coren Law’s Isle of Man civil procedure portal: Click On | Coren Law.

Photo credit: Markus Winkler