Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein says he finds it sur­pris­ing that vot­ers are ac­cus­ing EBC of­fi­cials of not fol­low­ing prop­er guide­lines dur­ing the vot­ing process.

He was re­spond­ing to a re­port from jour­nal­ist Cindy Raghubar-Teek­ers­ingh that prop­er pro­ce­dures were not be­ing fol­lowed when she went to vote at the Cowen Hamil­ton School in Princes Town. Raghubar-Teek­ers­ingh said when she went to cast her bal­lot the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer no­ticed it was not ini­tialled and did not have a num­ber. When the of­fi­cer ques­tioned an­oth­er EBC rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the of­fi­cial said she will put her ini­tials af­ter Raghubar-Teek­ers­ingh cast her bal­lot.

How­ev­er, this raised con­cerns and the mat­ter was even­tu­al­ly re­solved.

Ho­sein said he was sur­prised by the re­port.

"I find this strange. They were sup­posed to be prop­er­ly trained," Ho­sein said. He al­so ex­pressed shock at al­le­ga­tions from UNC Coun­cil­lor for Ve­ga de Oropouche Anil Juter­am that he was told he was en­ti­tled to two votes be­cause he was a busi­ness­man.

Ho­sein said this was ir­reg­u­lar.

"I don't know how that could hap­pen. Every woman and man is en­ti­tled to one vote, " Ho­sein added.

His broth­er Ryaad Ho­sein al­so vot­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary while the can­di­date for Les Ef­forts West/La Ro­maine vot­ed at the San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary School.

Ho­sein said the vot­ing process was smooth and he had no re­ports of ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties.

Mean­while, po­lice were out in full force at all of the polling di­vi­sions as promised by Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith.

Short­ly be­fore Ho­sein vot­ed, po­lice pulled over a car on Todd Street, San Fer­nan­do, which they be­lieve had a fake num­ber plate. A cou­ple was ques­tioned and lat­er re­leased.

A cam­ou­flage army hat was seized by the of­fi­cers.

Mean­while, most of the vot­ers who came out dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing hours were main­ly the el­der­ly.

At Mara­bel­la South Sec­ondary School, a steady stream of vot­ers turned up af­ter the polls opened.

Leon Lewis said he was hap­py with the process as he was out of there with­in five min­utes.

Pen­sion­er Charles Brew­ster, who is 81, said he came out to get away from the rush and chaos.

"I am hap­py to ex­er­cise my civic du­ty. Every­thing went well," he added.

At St Paul's An­gli­can Girls' Pri­ma­ry, vot­ing was slow. There were no is­sues of can­vass­ing near the polling sta­tions.