Econ­o­mist Dr Ter­rence Far­rell is de­scrib­ing as far­ci­cal the 2020 Gen­er­al Elec­tion re­count process ini­ti­at­ed by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in five mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies.

In a brief let­ter to the Ed­i­tor on Fri­day, Far­rell ob­served that "Trinidad and To­ba­go is now ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a pub­lic health emer­gency giv­en the ex­po­nen­tial in­crease in COVID-19 cas­es."

This, he said, "re­quires a func­tion­al Cab­i­net and Min­is­ter of Health to pro­mul­gate the changes in the reg­u­la­tions to bring the spread un­der con­trol."

Far­rell said those can­di­dates who ini­ti­at­ed the re­counts know that noth­ing will change and urged Jear­lean John, Nabi­la Greene, David Nakhid, Colonel Ahloy Hunt to "please end these far­ci­cal re­counts now!"

"You and the rest of the pop­u­la­tion know that the re­counts will change noth­ing. Let the new Cab­i­net be sworn-in to deal with the emerg­ing pub­lic health cri­sis," Far­rell said.

The UNC had or­dered re­counts in the mar­gin­al con­stituen­cies of La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro, St Joseph, San Fer­nan­do West, To­co/San­gre Grande and Tu­na­puna. Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP) leader Wat­son Duke had al­so or­dered a re­count of the To­ba­go East seat but con­ced­ed to Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment can­di­date Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy soon af­ter the re­count start­ed.

Faris Al-Rawi has since won the re­count over Sean Sobers in San Fer­nan­do West.

How­ev­er, the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion has not­ed that the re­count process is be­ing de­layed be­cause the UNC can­di­dates are not ful­ly co­op­er­at­ing with the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers who are in charge of the re­count process­es. The process was still on­go­ing in the four out­stand­ing con­stituen­cies yes­ter­day and will con­tin­ue this week­end.

On Fri­day, Far­rell warned the UNC can­di­dates that the"con­se­quences of de­lay will be on your heads and on the lead­er­ship of the UNC who in­sti­gat­ed this farce."