Low turnout on the populous corridor

Some residents in the San Juan/ Laventille region said voting was slower than usual, but in Arima, assistant to the PNM regional coordinator of the Arima Borough, Cagney Casimire told Newsday voting progressed steadily throughout the day in the seven electoral districts. He said there was one complaint of names not appearing on the voters’ list.

Casimire was confident that the PNM, which won all the seats in Arima Borough in 2013, would win them all once again.

His prediction came through as Arima was returned to the PNM which won all seats on offer. An Arima resident told Newsday that he has stopped voting in local government elections because it makes no difference in the service offered to the people. He said the party in control of central government controls funding at the local government level. Many others at Curepe and Tacarigua shared similar views.

UNC activist in the Tunapuna/ Piarco region Senator Khadijah Ameen told Newsday that voting started off smoothly in the region, but towards mid-morning several UNC supporters began complaining about their names not appearing on the voters’ lists at some polling stations. “Our subsequent checks to the EBC hotline and the EBC website showed that the names were in fact on the list. In some cases, the people had left, so we (UNC) would have lost some votes. That was a concern for us,” she said.

This corporation also returned to the control of the ruling PNM.

Meanwhile, Ronald Aqui, campaign manager of the candidate in the Petit Bourg/Mt Lambert/ Champ Fleurs told Newsday that even though the turnout was slow at Holy Family RC Primary School, it was consistent with what he had seen over the years with local government elections.

Aqui said his campaign was focused on ensuring that the district returns to the PNM and his candidate Warren Winchester.