A pho­to­graph of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley in a polling sta­tion for the Mara­bel­la South/Vista­bel­la seat at the Vista­bel­la Re­gion­al Com­plex is en­gag­ing the at­ten­tion of the le­gal team of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC).

UNC Princes Town MP Bar­ry Padarath, who ac­com­pa­nied their can­di­date Sasha Ali, as she vot­ed at the com­plex said the pho­to­graph is a se­ri­ous po­lit­i­cal threat, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it is the bat­tle­field dis­trict in the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion.

He said they have asked for the pho­to to be re­moved and their le­gal team is speak­ing with the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer and the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer in the dis­trict.

Say­ing that the Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) should have fore­seen this ear­li­er, he said that many of the venues be­ing used as polling sta­tions are com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres or schools which are the prop­er­ty of the gov­ern­ment.

How­ev­er, he said to­day they must act with­in the con­fines and rules or the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Peo­ple Act.

One vot­er Col­in Chan­dler first raised the is­sue with Guardian Me­dia. He said he saw the pho­to on the wall of the cen­tre when he ar­rived to cast his vote.

He said he raised it with the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer but it was not re­moved. He was in­stead told that the venue was a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre. He said, "If I am im­par­tial and I did not know who I was go­ing to vote for on the day, when I walked in there, just see­ing the im­age or the like­ness may have in­flu­enced the di­rec­tion that I want­ed to vote for. When I left the pic­ture was still on the wall. I con­sid­er this to be against the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic and fair elec­toral progress that is TT on this day."