Sto­ry by SHAS­TRI BOODAN

The UNC’s can­di­date for the Ch­agua­nas West seat strong­ly be­lieves that in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers should be called in for the Au­gust 10th Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, a for­mer In­dus­tri­al Court Judge, spoke with Guardian Me­dia on Wednes­day, as he can­vassed the Be­ju­cal-Munroe Road area.

Echo­ing the con­cerns of the UNC’s po­lit­i­cal leader, Ram­bal­ly said hav­ing the in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers will put many vot­ers’ fears to rest.

“Peo­ple are say­ing that they do not trust what is go­ing on. They have a fear that the EBC is not hold­ing true to what they are ex­pect­ed to do—that is the num­ber one con­cern that peo­ple stat­ed when we were walk­ing around to­day,” the UNC can­di­date told Guardian Me­dia.

He added: “One ma­jor con­cern for peo­ple is whether the gov­ern­ment, or the Prime Min­is­ter, has in­vit­ed in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers. The ques­tion that aris­es in every­body’s mind is, if you dis­solve Par­lia­ment and an­nounce that since last week, why didn’t you make the move to an­nounce or in­vite in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers as yet? That is a con­cern we have.”

Ram­bal­ly said the UNC Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, wrote to the PM ear­li­er on Wednes­day with re­gard to the is­sue of in­ter­na­tion­al ob­servers.

UNC Chaguanas West candidate, Dinesh Rambally, talks to farmer Doodnath Lutchman during his walkabout at Ramsaran Trace off Munroe Road in Cunupia, on Wednesday. (Image: SHASTRI BOODAN)

SHASTRI BOODAN

He ex­pressed hope for a smooth elec­toral process.

“One is­sue that con­tin­ues to arise on Elec­tion Day—elec­tion af­ter elec­tion—is that of per­sons reg­is­tered to vote not see­ing their names on the Vot­ers’ List,” he said. “We hope the EBC gets its act to­geth­er this time around.”

Ram­bal­ly said the res­i­dents of the con­stituen­cy are suf­fer­ing from poor drains and bad roads. Ac­cord­ing to the prospec­tive MP, this was be­cause few time­ly al­lo­ca­tions were made to the Tunupana / Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

He said the res­i­dents are al­so con­cerned about the grow­ing crime rate in the coun­try, es­pe­cial­ly the ris­ing mur­der rate.