Kamla and Jack lead in UNC polls

Reflecting the division in the highest level at the party, the electorate appeared to serve a mixed menu especially for the critical posts of the Deputy Political Leaders.

These were some of the very preliminary trends as the laborious task of counting the votes cast at 61 polling stations by 28,000 persons for 16 positions, continued up to late last night. Results were slow to come in to the central command station, Rienzi Complex. Up to press time, the Siparia count was still in progress, with Team Patriots candidates ahead. The Progressives who set up a counter-command station at the Chaguanas constituency office, were in buoyant spirits as the Caroni East vote came in, showing that the 800 plus voters went solidly in the Progressives favour for all 16 positions.

Officials reported that there appeared to be some cross-voting, ie people may not have voted for an entire slate.

Gopeesingh stated that voter turnout was about 43 percent. Some 12,000 voters out of 28,000 financial members cast their ballot. This, he pointed out, compared very well to the last internal elections where the voter turnout was just 23 percent, with 21,000 members out of a total 89,000 voted.

The two constituencies which recorded the highest voter turnout were held by Team Patriots Mps. They were Fyzabad (held by Chandresh Sharma) where 1,000 voted and Siparia, (held by Kamla Persad-Bissessar) where 1100 members participated.

In Couva North where Basdeo Panday is the MP however only 650 voters participated. Couva South where Kelvin Ramnath is the incumbent had 630 voters casting their ballots.

From the Progressives, a strong showing came from St Augustine, with 950 voters, the constituency of Winston Dookeran and Ganga Singh’s Caroni East with 900 voters. Oropouche was not far behind with 750 voters showing up at the polling station.

Other constituencies fell below the 500 mark. Naparima (500); Chaguanas (470); Princes Town (400); Pointe-a-Pierre (400); Nariva (360); Ortoire/Mayaro (325); Tunapuna (320); Tabaquite (318); St Joseph (280) and San Juan/Barataria (130).

Both Panday and Dookeran were elected unopposed as Chairman and Political Leader respectively.

Gopeesingh said the elections went quite well and the turnout demonstrated a degree of mobilisation by both sides. The elections were able to run democratically, he said.

He admitted that there were one or two difficulties where persons’ names were not on the constituency lists but were on the Rienzi Complex list. But, those problems were ironed out, he said, adding that the Elections Management Committee did very well.

Gopeesingh also congratulated both teams for the excellent camaraderie that prevailed yesterday.

The Panday Slate: TEAM PATRIOTS