Voting problems at unc elections

Both are lifetime members and therefore their names remain on the voters’ list unless they request that their membership be withdrawn.

Lucky said the internal elections afforded her the opportunity to build a "bigger, better UNC."

Yesterday’s polls, however, had many of the hitches associated with General Elections.

The electronic list issued by Rienzi Complex and the hard copy list did not always match. And people found that they were on one, but not on the other.

These discrepancies caused some frustration for voters. One woman arrived at the Tunapuna Hindu School only to be told that she was registered for St Ann’s East. When she got to St Ann’s, she was sent back to Tunapuna to vote. A family of three found that the mother and father were registered at the Tunapuna polling station, but the son was registered at a station in another constituency.

"It is difficult on the voters because this is Sunday. And it is already hard for people to come out because they want to spend time with their families," Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan noted as she spoke about the hiccups.

The Senator pointed to another problem. The rules clearly stated that candidates were not supposed to be in the polling station for more than ten minutes yet Vashist Maharaj ( who was contesting the post of election officer for Team Patriot) had been in the polling station for over two hours straight. "He is sitting by the Polling Officers, looking over his shoulders," she said.

Seepersad-Bachan is one of the candidates on the Progressive slate contesting the post of deputy political leader.

Seepersad-Bachan said she reported it to Rienzi Complex and was told that officials should "push" Maharaj out. "But I don’t feel that we should have to move like this," she said. "I want fair elections and civilised behaviour because at the end of the day it is one party", she added.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar (of Team Patriot) also had similar complaints of inappropriate conduct, but it was against the Progressives. She charged that outside the polling station at the Clark Rochard Government School, the Progressive slate had a mike urging people to vote for its individual candidates.

Chairman Wade Mark who was driving around to all the polling stations, said that while there were some problems, there was nothing major to complain about. Ken Emrith who was monitoring the San Fernando West polling station was also relatively satisfied with both the turnout and the process.

Despite the complaints UNC members were upbeat about the elections, relieved that the process was coming to an end, and hopeful as they waited for the count. Seepersad-Bachan said the elections were not about winning or losing. "At the end of the day one hopes that the campaign would have awakened and enlightened the country and the party membership on political reform and where we need to go...If it achieves that, that would be a victory by itself."