JACKSON (AP) — Three Wilkinson County officials will take the Fifth Amendment if asked to testify in a bizarre election challenge that involves claims of voting irregularities, intimidation and racial overtones in the Democratic primary, an attorney said.

Sheriff Reginald Jackson, Circuit Clerk Mon Cree Allen and Supervisor Richard Hollins went to court to challenge their re-election losses in the Aug. 7 primary.

What makes the case unusual is that the three incumbents wanted a court to decide the matter, but it now appears they don’t want to participate in the hearings that began last week.

The men plan to take the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from self incrimination, if called to testify, said Ben Piazza Jr., the Jackson attorney representing Hollins’ primary opponent.

The three races were left off the county’s general election ballot pending resolution.

The incumbents were reportedly losing the Democratic primary when the polls closed. But they were declared winners after paper ballots were counted by a small group of people, including the sheriff’s sister, Easter Prater, the chair of the county’s Democratic Executive Committee.

That’s when accusations began to surface that someone stuffed the ballot boxes.

‘‘We have made allegations of massive fraud regarding the paper ballots,’’ Piazza told The Associated Press on Saturday. ‘‘And now these folks have announced in open court that they are taking the Fifth Amendment.’’

Numerous attempts by the AP to contact Prater, the incumbent officials and their attorneys over the weekend were not successful. A woman who answered the telephone at Hollins’ home Saturday said he was there, but hung up before he took the call. Subsequent calls went unanswered.

Piazza also said 19 white members of the Democratic committee were not allowed to participate in the counting of votes.

‘‘Two deputies came and said they would be arrested if they didn’t leave,’’ Piazza said.

The three incumbents are black. Two of the challengers are black and one is white.

‘‘This isn’t black against white. It’s black and against black and white,’’ Piazza said.

One of the members of the committee made a similar claim to the AP, but she asked not to be identified over fears of retaliation.

‘‘It is not just a race thing. It’s a power thing with the incumbents,’’ she said.

It appeared the incumbents would be on the ballot during the general election until a majority of the members of the Democratic committee — all whites — asked to count the votes.

Only three members of the committee had certified the original count. State law requires that a majority of the nearly 30 members participate, Piazza said. The group overturned the results on Sept. 6 and certified as winners the incumbents’ challengers — Kirk Smith, who was challenging Hollins, Jessie Stewart, who was running for sheriff, and Jeanette Delaney, who was running against Allen.

The incumbents then when to court, saying they were the real winners.

A hearing in the case is expected to resume Monday.

In a disturbing twist to the story, Smith, the only white candidate in the debacle, has been the victim of a series of tragedies since the primary, Piazza said. Smith’s wife, Donna, was arrested in a courtroom when she disputed the results. She was cleared of disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace charges and is suing the deputy, Piazza said. Also, vandals damaged Smith’s construction equipment and his home burned just days later.

‘‘It was definitely an arson,’’ Smith told the AP.

Wilkinson County is in the extreme southwest corner of the state and has population of about 10,000 — about 70 percent black and 30 percent white.

This is not the first time whites in Mississippi have claimed racial intimidation during an election. A federal judge ruled in June that the Noxubee County Democratic Party in eastern Mississippi violated whites’ voting rights. That was the first time the 1965 Voting Rights Act was used on behalf of whites.



AP-CS-11-18-07 1805EST