Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall yesterday defended the integrity of his office amid criticism over the Parliamentary Registration Department’s handling of Tuesday’s gender equality referendum.

 The completed unofficial results of the vote have still not been released and up to press time last night results from several constituencies had still not been reported.

 However, Mr. Hall said that this referendum was different from typical elections and therefore, more time was required to tally the votes.

 “This process involved several questions. This was not like an election where you simply have two candidates and you are just counting two candidates. There were four questions and each ballot was counted four times,” the parliamentary commissioner said.

 Mr. Hall said that the criticism levied at his department is unwarranted and he noted that under the constitution, results from elections are not required to be disclosed for 48-hours.

 Overall, he said he is satisfied with his department’s performance.

 “We are still awaiting results from several constituencies and a recount is taking place,” he said. “We are required to do a recount and then the results will be certified and signed off by the Governor General and then made public on Thursday.

 “We are very efficient. This is the same department that has been handling elections for years in the country and we have always done so competently. There is no difference this time around. This was a different process.”

 Following Tuesday’s vote, Mr. Hall announced that the four bills had been overwhelmingly rejected. His announcement came while voting was still underway and while only three New Providence constituencies – Elizabeth, Carmichael and Bamboo Town’s results were in.

 During his announcement, Mr. Hall also reported that his team had encountered some problems.

 He said that a power outage in the Montagu constituency had delayed voting there and that there were problems with communication with some Family Islands.

 Despite the recount being incomplete he assured that any significant change to the results of Tuesday’s vote is highly unlikely.

 The official results are expected to be released today.