SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

There was a slow but steady stream of vot­ers in the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (TPRC) and the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion dis­tricts to­day.

While Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) can­di­dates in both dis­tricts re­port­ed in­ci­dent-free and smooth vot­ing process­es, their op­po­nents had many com­plaints.

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­date for Blan­chisseuse/San­ta Rosa Mar­i­lyn Mar­tin said many of the con­stituents in her dis­trict were be­ing turned away at polling sta­tions and told their names were not on the list of reg­is­tered vot­ers.

"Peo­ple said they were told their names not on the lists and it's on­ly when they make noise, then they are be­ing tak­en in­to a room and their names mag­i­cal­ly ap­pear on a list," Mar­tin said.

She said her of­fice had at­tor­neys who vis­it­ed the two polling sta­tions—the Mount Zion Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church and the San­ta Rosa Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry—ear­li­er in the day to "sort out" the is­sues.

When she spoke to Guardian Me­dia around 3 pm, Mar­tin said they were still deal­ing with the same is­sue at the Mount Zion Church. When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the polling sta­tion short­ly af­ter, vot­ers did not re­port any ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties.

Hus­band and wife Phillip and Theodo­ra Bor­neo said they were both fin­ished vot­ing less than five min­utes af­ter they ar­rived at the church.

Oth­er vot­ers, who did not want to give their names, al­so re­port­ed a smooth, quick vot­ing process.

Guardian Me­dia al­so spoke to vot­ers at Lak­sh­mi Girls' Hin­du Col­lege, the Dins­ley Trinic­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School, the Mal­abar RC School, the San­ta Rosa Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School and the Bethel World Out­reach Cen­tre in Ari­ma.

Out­go­ing chair­man of the TPRC Paul Lea­cock said he vot­ed at the Dins­ley Trinci­ty Pri­ma­ry School by 8.30 am. Lea­cock said he had no is­sues and the process was with­out in­ci­dent.

He com­mend­ed the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion for mak­ing ac­com­mo­da­tions at the school for vot­ers us­ing wheel­chairs.

Lea­cock said two makeshift ramps were con­struct­ed and be­cause of this, he was able to take his twin sis­ter, who us­es a wheel­chair, to cast her vote.