Voter-padding charges in no-man’s land

What has happened to those voter-padding charges which were laid against 30 or more persons between November 2000 and March 2001? The vast majority of voter-padding charges which were a particularly ugly feature of the December 2000 elections are yet to be determined in a court of law, some three and a half years after they were laid. Few would not recall the spectacle of people being dragged, handcuffed to the court, charged with making false declarations about their change of addresses. There was a pattern. In all instances the voters stated that they had changed their addresses from safe constituencies to marginal constituencies. By November 2000, the EBC revealed that there were 252 suspicious instances of change of addresses. And they announced that they had handed over the names to the police. Subsequently, the police laid charges. This newspaper has looked at eight of the persons against whom charges were laid.

One couple allegedly committed the offence on September 16, 2000, that they declared they had changed their place of residence from Ramgoolie Trace in the Caroni East constituency to a Taca-rigua area, in the Tunapuna constituency. A review of the EBC July 2004 list reveals that the couple are today still residents of Ramgoolie Trace. A man of Chase Village was charged with making a false statement to the EBC on September 19, 2000 that he changed his address to Tacarigua in the marginal Tunapuna constituency. A review of the EBC 2004 list shows that the man is still a resident at the Chase Village address. The same is true of another woman and a man who were alleged to have declared on September 22, 2000 that they moved from Caparo Valley in Caroni East address to a Tacarigua address. The July 2004 EBC list indicates that they are also still registered as living at Caparo Valley.

Yet another man was alleged to have moved from Ruby Lane, Marabella to Block 6, Palmiste in San Fernando West. According to the July 2004 EBC list he is still  registered at Ruby Lane in San Fernando East. Another man was charged with transferring his address from Sydenham Ave, St Ann’s in the constituency of PoS North/St Ann’s West to Carlton Lane, San Fernando in the constituency of San Fernando West. The 2004 list shows him to be still living at his St Ann’s address. A woman allegedly made a false declaration on September 21 that she changed her place of residence from New Settlement Dow Village, California to No 2 Robert St, Tacarigua. The woman according to the list, still lives in Couva South. Another woman was charged with changing her address from Local Road, McBean Village, Couva to Palmiste in the constituency of San Fernando West. She is still registered in the Couva constituency, according to the EBC July 2004 list.