Camille McEach­nie

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM), Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots (PDP), and in­de­pen­dent can­di­date Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus said they were all hap­py with the smooth vot­ing process in the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions and were glad COVID-19 pro­to­cols were fol­lowed.

PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil po­lit­i­cal leader Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine, the par­ty’s can­di­date for the Lam­beau/Sig­nal Hill, who vot­ed at the De­laford RC School, said as far as she heard vot­ing was smooth. She said the on­ly ir­reg­u­lar­i­ty she heard of was at the Lam­beau polling sta­tion where a vot­er al­leged­ly took a bal­lot away from the polling sta­tion.

The PDP’s Wat­son Duke said he had heard of on­ly a few ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties, as the names of four per­sons who vot­ed in the 2017 elec­tions were ab­sent from the list.

“How­ev­er, for the most part, the vot­ing was smooth. I went in and out of my polling sta­tion in a very short time,” said Duke, who vot­ed at the Rox­bor­ough An­gli­can school just af­ter mid­day.

He said he planned to spend the rest of the day “bring­ing out the vote” as vot­er turnout “ap­peared to be slow.”

Duke said in the THA elec­tions in 2017, more peo­ple had vot­ed by noon.

“I in­tend to roll up my sleeve, take off my jack­et, and made sure peo­ple come out and vote,” he said

At the oth­er end of the is­land in Scar­bor­ough, for­mer Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) coun­cil­lor Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus said she is “at peace” with her de­ci­sion to be an in­de­pen­dent can­di­date. She vot­ed at the Har­mons SDA School at 9 am. She was al­so pleased with the COVID-19 pro­to­cols in place at the polling sta­tion.

Dr Tsoiafatt-An­gus said her first act when she woke up on the morn­ing of the elec­tions was to pray. She said she would spend the rest of the day vis­it­ing vot­ers.

Vice pres­i­dent of the Crown Point Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion ex­pressed sat­is­fac­tion that COVID-19 pro­to­cols were in place at polling sta­tions.

“At this polling sta­tion, I was glad every­thing was in place to pre­vent the spread of the virus. So­cial dis­tanc­ing mea­sures were al­so in place, and every­thing ran smooth­ly for me from start to fin­ish. The Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion was ready for this.”

Oth­er vot­ers, Adam Hack­ette, Bernadette Max­ine, Car­o­line Stew­art, and Lin­sel Dove, left the polling sta­tion smil­ing, sat­is­fied that the EBC did its part in pre­vent­ing the spread of the pan­dem­ic.

Vot­ing be­gan at 6 am at 61 polling sta­tions across To­ba­go and peo­ple be­gan lin­ing up as ear­ly as 5.30 am. Ac­cord­ing to the EBC, 51,062 per­sons were el­i­gi­ble to vote.