Political leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) Rekha Ramjit yesterday slammed the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) for informing her party mere hours before today’s Local Government Elections that three polling stations in the Chaguanas Borough Corporation had been shifted.
So annoyed was Ramjit, she promised to write the EBC a letter tomorrow about the disturbing issue.
“We came into the office lunch time today (yesterday) and found a hand delivered letter, signed by one of the EBC’s returning officers, which was stuck under our door indicating that tomorrow (today) the locations of three polling stations in Felicity/Endeavour had been relocated,” an upset Ramjit said yesterday.
The stations have been moved from Montrose Vedic Primary School to Presentation College at Yves Street, Chaguanas.
Three polling stations are 2905, 2906 and 2010.
In the 2013 elections, Ramjit said, of the 104,000 votes the ILP had captured, in these three polling stations, they won the most votes.
“We were ahead of the People’s National Movement and United National Congress by about 50 votes, which was sufficient to make a difference.”
The ILP is contesting seven of its eight seats in the Chaguanas Borough Corporation. In 2013 they won two of the eight seats they vied for.
Ramjit said she was most annoyed by the last-minute change, since she felt the EBC could have notified the ILP way in advance.
She said delivering such a letter at the “eleventh hour” of an election would no doubt cause disarray among its voters and create confusion for the party.
“Why did we get our letter after working hours? My position is that...arrangements would have been made by the ILP to take our voters to these stations. Or they would go there themselves. This is a turn off for voters now.
“People would not want to go to these polling stations to cast their ballots. This late notice will work against us. Is this really unfair to us? Why were letters not delivered to all parties at the same time?”
On Saturday, leader of the United National Congress Kamla Persad-Bissessar told supporters at the party’s rally in Couva that they too were notified by the EBC that these polling stations in Chaguanas had been shifted.
Ramjit claimed the move was one way of stifling the efforts of the minor parties, who were challenging the PNM and UNC.
Stating that the outcome of today’s elections was difficult to predict, Ramjit said while people are annoyed with the UNC and PNM, they would still support them.
“Because voters feel these are the parties that have the power to give them a hand out. They recognise the ILP has no power in Central Government.
“It’s all about being able to get something from who has the power. We are trying to make a change in Chaguanas.”
Leader of the Movement for Social Justice David Abdulah said the party had a smooth transition for the election campaign..
“We had a few motorcades today and everything went smoothly,” Abdulah said.