RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

With vot­ing ful­ly un­der­way, Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has raised con­cerns about de­lays, vot­er bribery, and gaps in the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) reg­u­la­tions.

Speak­ing to re­porters af­ter cast­ing her bal­lot at the Her­mitage Pres­by­ter­ian School in La Ro­maine around mid­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said her per­son­al vot­ing ex­pe­ri­ence went “eas­i­ly and quick­ly."

How­ev­er, she said it was not the same for oth­er vot­ers.

"I've had re­ports from oth­er sta­tions that the process is lengthy, and I don't know if it is a strat­e­gy to frus­trate peo­ple, or if they are just in­com­pe­tent," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She not­ed there were re­ports of is­sues in La Hor­quet­ta and Tal­paro.

"The re­ports com­ing in are that peo­ple are seek­ing to buy out vot­ers. We heard this in Moru­ga/Table­land, and we are fol­low­ing oth­ers who we think are brib­ing vot­ers," she said.

Is­su­ing a stern mes­sage, Per­sad-Bisses­sar warned, "We want to re­mind peo­ple that vot­er bribery is a crime. It car­ries a jail sen­tence for both the briber and the bribed."

She added, "The po­lice will be look­ing for you if you en­gage in that un­law­ful ac­tion."

She al­so urged vot­ers to ex­er­cise their rights even if they were miss­ing poll cards or ID cards.

"Even if you don't have a poll card, you can still at­tend and vote," she said. "Once your name is on the list, even if you don't have your ID card, once your name is on the binder, you can vote. Stay in the lines and cast your vote," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the par­ty had sent "sev­er­al let­ters" to the EBC over ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties.

"By the end of to­day, we will have a dossier of let­ters. We hope there is no re­stric­tion or block­age to peo­ple cast­ing their vote," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so raised con­cerns about spe­cial vot­ing ses­sions, stat­ing, "Ob­servers are in­sist­ing that what is be­ing done is wrong."

On her cam­paign team, she not­ed that her hus­band Dr Gre­go­ry Bisses­sar, who had suf­fered from whiplash fol­low­ing an ac­ci­dent, al­so will vote lat­er in the day.

"He will be here and will make sure to cast that vote."

Com­ment­ing on turnout of vot­ers across the coun­try, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said it was high­er than nor­mal.

"In my own con­stituen­cy, turnout is high­er than in the last elec­tion. They are com­ing in swift­ly, and Moru­ga's turnout is al­so high."

She called for changes to the elec­tion laws, stat­ing that cur­rent reg­u­la­tions are out­dat­ed as the PNM was us­ing so­cial me­dia to con­tin­ue to cam­paign.

"The law is so ar­cha­ic. There is noth­ing in the law that ex­press­es any­thing about post­ing cam­paign mes­sages on so­cial me­dia."

De­spite the is­sues raised, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was plac­ing her trust in the elec­torate.

"At the end of the day, we put our faith in the hands of the elec­torate," she said. "The voice of the peo­ple is the voice of God. Do not be de­terred. Stay in the line and cast your vote."

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she would vis­it polling sta­tions through­out her con­stituen­cy dur­ing the day and ex­pect­ed up­dates every hour.

Mean­while, ACP Wayne Mys­tar said he was un­aware of al­le­ga­tions of vot­er bribery in the Moru­ga/Table­land con­stituen­cy. He said ad­di­tion­al po­lice have been de­ployed and will con­duct in­ves­ti­ga­tions.