Res­i­dents of Lengua/In­di­an Walk are gear­ing up for a con­se­quen­tial re­match at the polls af­ter the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion has de­clared fresh elec­tions, fol­low­ing a his­toric tie for the elec­toral dis­trict.

Guardian Me­dia jour­neyed in­to the com­mu­ni­ty on Sun­day af­ter­noon to gauge re­ac­tions to the his­toric event and to de­ter­mine the vot­ers’ in­ten­tions for the up­com­ing elec­tion.

At St Croix Road, a group of youths sat on the road­side play­ing cards. Dwayne Charles, when ques­tioned about their vot­ing plans, quipped, “Ask us if we vot­ed be­fore!” He elab­o­rat­ed that while many youths ab­stained from vot­ing in the ini­tial elec­tion, the prospect of an­oth­er elec­tion has spurred re­newed in­ter­est.

“We have to get rid of Row­ley and the PNM be­cause we fed up eat cu­cum­ber. We want steak,” Charles said, elic­it­ing hearty laugh­ter from his friends.

Charles added that with the new elec­tion loom­ing more peo­ple will come out in their num­bers to en­sure that the UNC keeps the seat.

This sen­ti­ment was echoed at St Croix among con­stituents who voiced their de­sire for eco­nom­ic im­prove­ment. Greg James said peo­ple from Lengua/In­di­an Walk were fed up with the eco­nom­ic strain they faced dai­ly un­der the PNM.

“We are go­ing UNC this time be­cause we want bet­ter­ment,” he said.

Gideon Wy­att al­so said the de­ci­sion of the EBC had left peo­ple be­wil­dered.

“I want a 17-dol­lar min­i­mum wage. That is what I want and be­cause of that, yes, I am go­ing to vote again,” Wy­att said.

At Wat­son Trace, Ra­jen­dra Ram­per­sad said he too will re­turn to the polls even though he had no faith in the elec­toral process.

“I know the sys­tem is flawed and it’s cor­rupt. We could tell,” he de­clared.

He added, “It’s not now they start cheat­ing, that start way back. But I think if they want us to go back to the polls, we will go back and vote.”

So­dra Ra­haman al­so agreed that go­ing back to the polls was the best way for­ward es­pe­cial­ly since the two re­counts yield­ed a tie. She pre­dict­ed that many peo­ple will come out to vote for their par­ty of choice.

On Sat­ur­day, the EBC’s chief elec­tion of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis-Scope re­vealed that af­ter the sec­ond re­count both the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment gained 1,428 votes each.

Lengua/In­di­an Walk was ini­tial­ly de­clared for the PNM but a re­count con­duct­ed by the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer be­tween Au­gust 15 and 16 re­vealed three more votes for UNC can­di­date Nicole Gopaul and two less for PNM can­di­date Aut­ly Granthume.

On Au­gust 17, the sec­ond re­count be­gan and the re­sult re­mained the same.

Nar­cis-Scope lat­er re­vealed that “the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer for this elec­toral dis­trict has de­clared the elec­tion void, pur­suant to this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion by the Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer, mak­ing way for fresh elec­tions”.

The UNC-led Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion will re­main in the hands of the UNC even if the PNM wins the Lengua/In­di­an Walk elec­toral dis­trict in fresh elec­tion.

MP for Moru­ga/Table­land Michelle Ben­jamin said the UNC is pur­su­ing le­gal ac­tion against the EBC as the UNC should not be dis­en­fran­chised be­cause of a fail­ure by EBC of­fi­cials to ini­tial a bal­lot, which led to it be­ing deemed a spoilt bal­lot.