RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA
rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

At­tor­neys rep­re­sent­ing UNC can­di­date for San Fer­nan­do West Sean Sobers are plan­ning to write to the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion re­turn­ing of­fi­cer to rec­ti­fy some prob­lems at the Gulf View Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre which hous­es three polling sta­tions.

As part of the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions on­ly one door was be­ing used for elec­tors to ex­it and en­ter the fa­cil­i­ty, but this trig­gered a bot­tle­neck which last­ed for hours.

When Guardian Me­dia ar­rived on the scene, the lines stretched all the way to the Gulf View Link Road. Hun­dreds of peo­ple stood un­der um­brel­las in the swel­ter­ing heat.

At­tor­ney Jyan­ti Lutch­me­di­al said many elec­tors from Bel Air and Gulf View left the fa­cil­i­ty in frus­tra­tion. She ex­plained that el­der­ly peo­ple as well as dis­abled elec­tors were not be­ing al­lowed to dri­ve up to the cen­tre.

" I have spo­ken to the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers and they have agreed to look in­to this mat­ter. They have not ex­plained why they are not open­ing up the sec­ond door but they said open­ing it may not rec­ti­fy the prob­lem be­cause the bot­tle­neck is where the ac­tu­al vot­ing is tak­ing place," Lutch­me­di­al said.

She added, "I don't want to spec­u­late that this is de­lib­er­ate. I have spo­ken to the pres­i­dent of­fi­cer and I want to see if the prob­lems are be­ing rec­ti­fied be­fore I de­cide whether this is de­lib­er­ate."

She said she plans to write to the EBC's re­turn­ing of­fi­cer not­ing that in the past both doors were open and on­ly two polling sta­tions were lo­cat­ed at the cen­tre.

She al­so called for stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures say­ing it could not be that the el­der­ly and in­firmed are banned for dri­ving in­to the polling sta­tion's yard in some ar­eas and oth­er ar­eas they are dis­al­lowed.

She said at the AS­JA Girls polling sta­tion, el­der­ly peo­ple were walk­ing from Todd Street to the sta­tion.

Elec­tor An­gela Dhoor­bas­sa said she was up­set about the bot­tle­neck and called for the process to be speed­i­er.

An­oth­er elec­tor Ram­narace Ram­di­al said he spent al­most one hour and 20 min­utes to vote.

"I was num­ber 30 and I on­ly now got through," Lutch­me­di­al said.

Mean­while, Sobers who vot­ed at the Mon Re­pos RC said he was hap­py with the COVID 19 pro­to­cols. He said he had worked ex­treme­ly hard in the con­stituen­cy and was con­fi­dent of a vic­to­ry.

More as this sto­ry de­vel­ops.