Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Of­fi­cials of the UNC’s Elec­tion Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee (EMC) say spe­cial vot­ing in the par­ty’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion went very smooth­ly yes­ter­day, with “100 per cent turnout of spe­cial vot­ers.”

When asked how many spe­cial vot­ers there were, EMC chair­man Dar­rell Al­la­har said: “That is as much as we are pre­pared to say.”

The venue for spe­cial vot­ing at UNC’s cen­tral Trinidad head of­fice opened at 8 am and closed at 2 pm. Yes­ter­day’s ex­er­cise was the last step be­fore Sat­ur­day’s na­tion­al ex­ec­u­tive elec­tion, which takes place be­tween 8 am to 6 pm.

Vot­ing will be done at 76 polling sta­tions in the 41 con­stituen­cies, com­pris­ing pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, as well as com­mu­ni­ty and oth­er lo­ca­tions. Af­ter the elec­tion, the dead­line for re­counts is noon Sun­day and the fi­nal re­sults will be de­clared on June 21.

The in­cum­bent Stars slate sup­port­ed by po­lit­i­cal leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and the Unit­ed Pa­tri­ots slate head­ed by Ma­yaro MP Rush­ton Paray were hold­ing fi­nal cam­paign meet­ings be­tween last night and tonight.

Both slates are pre­dict­ing full vic­to­ry in the 17 ex­ec­u­tive posts be­ing con­test­ed.

In the fi­nal days be­fore Sat­ur­day’s elec­tion, mem­bers of the Stars slate wound up the pri­vate cot­tage meet­ings that have been held in re­cent weeks, while the UP slate held a pub­lic meet­ing at the Rio Claro East Sec­ondary School in Paray’s con­stituen­cy last night.

Paray said in a state­ment: “As we come to the end of our Na­tex elec­tion cam­paign, our team rolls in­to my home con­stituen­cy of Ma­yaro. This elec­tion on Sat­ur­day 12th June is not a sim­ple par­ty elec­tion, it is go­ing to be a piv­otal day in T&T’s his­to­ry.

“It will be the day that a hand­ful of cit­i­zens take the reins of the sails of Trinidad and To­ba­go and ad­just to the up­com­ing head­winds, or we con­tin­ue as we are in a head-on col­li­sion with an un­pre­dictable fu­ture.”

Paray, who is con­test­ing the post of deputy leader, signed the mes­sage True Pa­tri­ots.

UNC deputy leader Roodal Mooni­lal, who is de­fend­ing that post, said the Stars slate will have their fi­nal cam­paign meet­ing tonight at Hillview Col­lege, Tu­na­puna

“We have a crit­i­cal Na­tex elec­tion on Sat­ur­day and I’m very con­fi­dent the Stars slate will tri­umph. We al­so have two by-elec­tions in Lengua/In­di­an Walk and Quinam/Morne Di­a­blo on Mon­day and we’re con­fi­dent we’ll be vic­to­ri­ous in those as well,” he said.

“The Star team is about the na­tion’s busi­ness in a sit­u­a­tion where the Gov­ern­ment is fail­ing on all fronts and our cit­i­zens are feel­ing it in every move­ment of their dai­ly lives from home to work and school and even to lim­ing. So we at­tend to our in­ter­nal arrange­ments on Sat­ur­day. We move on to con­front the PNM on Mon­day.”