RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Deputy po­lit­i­cal leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, says the par­ty has writ­ten to the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) af­ter de­lays were trig­gered at the Mo­hess Road and Ra­mai Trace polling sta­tions, as two in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cers from the EBC failed to show up when polls opened at 6 am.

Dr Mooni­lal has been mak­ing the rounds across polling ar­eas in his con­stituen­cy.

Speak­ing to re­porters at Par­vati Girls' Hin­du Col­lege in Debe, where he checked on the polling sta­tions there, Dr Mooni­lal said:

"We saw some teething prob­lems emerg­ing in two ar­eas—one in Mo­hess Road; one in Ra­mai Trace.  At the 6 o'clock ap­point­ed time, in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cers of the EBC, were not present, and that cre­at­ed a lit­tle set­back."

He added: "It took a lit­tle longer to ver­i­fy peo­ple's names, polling cards and put them in the right line and or­der."

Dr Mooni­lal ex­plained that the EBC should try to make the vot­ing process as smooth as pos­si­ble.

"We have writ­ten to the EBC al­ready—mean­ing the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer, not the Port of Spain of­fice—and they're work­ing on deal­ing with the mat­ter. They're aware of the prob­lem, be­cause we don't want any sit­u­a­tion where vot­ers are frus­trat­ed," Dr Mooni­lal said.

He al­so said there was an is­sue ear­li­er at Par­vati Girls' Hin­du Col­lege where se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers did not al­low per­sons to dri­ve in­to the com­pound.

"This led to a prob­lem this morn­ing, where el­der­ly per­sons with ill­ness­es and so on, who are not com­plete­ly mo­bile, had to park out­side on the road here, and their fam­i­ly or friends had to walk them to the polling sta­tion. So again, we spoke to the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer, and that has been rec­ti­fied, at least," he said.

When Guardian Me­dia checked at the Ra­mai Trace polling sta­tion, there were no long lines.

Res­i­dent Vi­nood Ram­sumair said peo­ple were al­lowed to dri­ve in­side but he com­plained there was no prop­er sig­nage. He said up to 9 am, there was no EBC in­for­ma­tion of­fi­cer at the site.

The Na­tion­al Coali­tion for Trans­for­ma­tion (NCT) Can­di­date for San Fer­nan­do West con­stituen­cy, Ka­try­na Browne, vot­ed at Cof­fee Street Boys’ An­gli­can School.

She said the process was smooth.

The UNC’s can­di­date for San Fer­nan­do West, Dr Michael Dowlath, vot­ed at 8:30 am at Par­vati Girls Hin­du School. He al­so said the vot­ing process went well. 

Mean­while, some vot­ers re­port­ed be­ing un­able to vote at their tra­di­tion­al polling sta­tions.

Mar­gan Be­dassie, who came to vote at Par­vati Girls' Hin­du Col­lege, said he was told he had to go to Debe Sec­ondary School to cast his bal­lot. Ar­riv­ing at the sta­tion just be­fore dawn, Be­dassie said he got through smooth­ly when he vot­ed.

And first-time vot­er Zoe Mc In­tyre of Union Hall, San Fer­nan­do, spoke about the im­por­tance of vot­ing af­ter cast­ing her bal­lot at the South­ern Acad­e­my in Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.

Her sis­ter, sec­ond-time vot­er Ka­sia Ochoa, ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion with the vot­ing process af­ter vot­ing at the South­ern Acad­e­my in Dun­can Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do.