The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

CERTAIN judges attempted to “sabotage” the results of this year’s Boxing Day parade, Junkanoo Corporation President Silbert Ferguson has claimed.

Insisting the official results are accurate despite intentional tampering, Mr Ferguson revealed several judges were found scoring outside their designated area, at least one awarded scores to eventual winners the Valley Boys – hours before the group even took to the street.

He said: “We tested the system several times but still the first sign of error came just as the Saxons passed zone one.

“There was a score that showed up for the Valley Boys. It was intentional and our tech teams have confirmed that it was intentional.

“The tech team is also saying that 12 of the judges were judging out of their zones. The GPS attached to the

system was able to tell us that.”

Mr Ferguson was referring to his organisation’s new smart phone tallying system, which had to be scrapped in favour of manual scoring as soon as errors were encountered.

Introduced this year, Mr Ferguson said the digital system was designed to make the scoring of groups easier.

Judges would only have to enter the scores with a cellphone and the system would take care of the tallying.

He said the JCNP was trying to replace the manual scoring system, which is not only tedious, but also time consuming.

Despite being abandoned, Mr Ferguson said that in alerting officials to the premature scoring for the Valley Boys, the new system did its job.

“This system was put in place so that the judges could be held more accountable,” he said.

Asked if the error might have affected the accuracy of the scores, Mr Ferguson said officials switched to the manual system at the first sight of a problem.

He insisted the results are accurate.

Mr Ferguson also revealed that there were some within the JCNP who opposed the move to a more transparent and accountable digital system – a move more progressive junkanooers have been seeking for years.

He said: “People don’t want change, but our efforts will not stop there.

“We will continue to move forward with our efforts to use all the technology available to us in making the scoring easy and efficient.”

In 2004, for the first time in history, the official junkanoo results were overturned giving the Saxons the New Year’s Day crown.

Following calculations released by the National Junkanoo Committee, the precursor of the JCNP, the Valley Boys had to relinquish the title despite being handed the unofficial victory.

Bill Wallace, NJC co-chairman at the time, said: “It was determined that there was a problem with the penalty points issued.”

Then Saxons’ back line co-ordinator Teddy Lightbourne gave the NJC this advice: “In this modern times with modern technology these things should not be going on in our times.... Now, is the time to get it right and get it right once and for all.”

RESULTS

THE Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade saw the Valley Boys capture first position with 3,325 points.

One Family came in second with 3,055 points, while the Roots came third with 2,794 points.

The Shell Saxon Superstars placed fourth with 2,749 points and the Music Makers rounded out the A category with 2,561 points.

In the B category, Colours Entertainment placed first with 3,014 points.

The Fancy Dancer followed in second place with 2,718 points, while the Conquerors for Christ came in fourth with 2,674 points.

The Redland Soldiers were fifth with 2,489 points, while the Original Congos came in sixth with 2,468 points.

The Body of Christ trailed them with 2,141 points, coming in just ahead of the Culture Junkanoo group which earned 1,973 points.