KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er@guardian.co.tt

The Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is call­ing for the im­me­di­ate re­moval of an­oth­er Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) re­turn­ing of­fi­cer, this time from the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy.

The par­ty is ac­cus­ing the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer of mis­con­duct while sort­ing bal­lot box­es con­tain­ing votes from spe­cial elec­tors in the con­stituen­cy on Mon­day.

UNC San Fer­nan­do East cam­paign man­ag­er Wendy Lewis, who at­tend­ed the ex­er­cise, claimed the EBC of­fi­cer act­ed ir­reg­u­lar­ly by ask­ing those present to sign a blank piece of pa­per in­stead of the re­quired A-45 form be­fore seal­ing the bal­lot box. She said at the end of the ex­er­cise, he al­so did not seal the box in the pres­ence of all the agents.

She al­leged the of­fi­cer ex­plained his ac­tions by say­ing he was “flus­tered.” She al­so claimed he called her two hours af­ter the process was com­plet­ed, ask­ing her to re­turn so he could seal the box in her pres­ence. How­ev­er, by her ac­count, the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) wit­ness left be­fore the bal­lots were even count­ed.

The UNC is al­so ac­cus­ing the of­fi­cer of on­ly in­form­ing the PNM of the open­ing of the bal­lot box­es on Sat­ur­day, leav­ing Lewis and the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front (PF) in the dark.

How­ev­er, PF leader Mick­ela Pan­day did not re­spond to calls yes­ter­day.

The UNC is now call­ing for the en­tire process to be re­done, say­ing the spe­cial vot­ers’ ex­er­cise is taint­ed.

Speak­ing at a UNC me­dia brief­ing at the par­ty’s head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas yes­ter­day, Lewis said, “We want the im­me­di­ate re­moval of the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer, and based on all the lack of trans­paren­cy and all the ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties that would have tak­en place yes­ter­day (Mon­day) af­ter­noon, we need the process to be re­done. We need a fair and trans­par­ent process.”

UNC Oropouche East can­di­date Dr Roodal Mooni­lal said the process was taint­ed and in­sist­ed there is leg­is­la­tion to re­move re­turn­ing of­fi­cers.

Mooni­lal said, “We have made our de­mand for the EBC to re­move the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer in the San Fer­nan­do East con­stituen­cy and to re­do that process which is now taint­ed, heav­i­ly taint­ed ... That process must be re­done, and to say that the law does not pro­vide for the EBC to re­move any­one is wrong.”

This com­plaint comes al­most one week af­ter the EBC an­nounced that one of its fe­male pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers was dis­qual­i­fied af­ter she was record­ed on ­video pledg­ing sup­port for the PNM. It fol­lowed a com­plaint lodged by the UNC af­ter a video be­gan cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia show­ing the woman ex­press­ing her views.

How­ev­er, EBC Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis has re­ject­ed the UNC’s ac­cu­sa­tion the par­ty wasn’t in­formed of Sat­ur­day’s ex­er­cise.

Nar­cis said the UNC had two rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the dis­tri­b­u­tion of bal­lot pa­pers to be used by spe­cial elec­tors to re­turn­ing of­fi­cers on Sat­ur­day.

Nar­cis said, “That ref­er­ence to what hap­pened on Sat­ur­day is an in­cor­rect ref­er­ence. It was not for him (re­turn­ing of­fi­cer) to tell the can­di­date. It was for me to tell the po­lit­i­cal par­ty, and that was done, and there was a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for the UNC at that ex­er­cise, both in Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do. I think what she’s ref­er­enc­ing is that she does not un­der­stand the process.”

Nar­cis said Nyree Al­fon­so and Michael Rooplal rep­re­sent­ed UNC in Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do re­spec­tive­ly.

How­ev­er, Nar­cis said she could not re­spond to the UNC un­til she was briefed by the of­fi­cer in­volved.

On the ac­cu­sa­tion of the bal­lots be­ing taint­ed, she said the UNC nev­er in­di­cat­ed there was an is­sue with the ac­tu­al bal­lots but rather the is­sue of the seal­ing of the box.

She added, “... I would re­lay those con­cerns to the com­mis­sion, and we will con­sid­er what is pos­si­ble and get back to the UNC on that mat­ter.”

Mean­while, UNC San Fer­nan­do East can­di­date John Michael Al­i­bo­cus claimed peo­ple were try­ing to ”sab­o­tage” his cam­paign be­cause he has “been able to turn the con­stituen­cy in­to a mar­gin­al one.”

How­ev­er, PNM San Fer­nan­do East can­di­date Bri­an Man­ning told Guardian Me­dia the UNC con­tin­ues to try to un­der­mine the in­tegri­ty of the EBC be­cause they will lose the elec­tion.

Man­ning said, “The UNC is al­ready mak­ing ex­cus­es for its in­evitable loss on April 28. The con­stant at­tempts to un­der­mine the in­tegri­ty and in­de­pen­dence of the EBC are an ad­mis­sion of de­feat. What is on dis­play here is the in­ex­pe­ri­ence of the UNC rep­re­sen­ta­tives in San Fer­nan­do East in nav­i­gat­ing the elec­toral process, while the PNM’s San Fer­nan­do East agent has near­ly three decades of ex­pe­ri­ence in that re­gard.”