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

Dis­crep­an­cies have been re­port­ed by the UNC at five polling sta­tions in the hot­ly con­test­ed Moru­ga/Table­land seat.

PNM can­di­date Win­ston Pe­ters vot­ed as a spe­cial elec­tor, but the UNC’s Michelle Ben­jamin went to the St Marys Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry school to cast her bal­lot short­ly af­ter 9 am.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Ben­jamin said the UNC had some set­backs which were lat­er sort­ed out by its le­gal team.

“At this polling sta­tion, the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer moved our mock sta­tion. She was be­ing a lit­tle... I don't want to use those words... But the sys­tem is still func­tion­ing even though they were mov­ing in­di­vid­u­als," Ben­jamin said.

She ex­plained that at the New Grant Gov­ern­ment School, the UNC's le­gal team again had to in­ter­vene when the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer re­fused to al­low the polling agent and the sub­agent to view the bal­lot box when it was first opened.

"In Marac RC we had prob­lems with mov­ing of the mock sta­tion. There was a prob­lem in Kan­hai Pres­by­ter­ian school as well and my le­gal team sort­ed it out," she said.

Ben­jamin said she was pleased that vot­ing went smooth­ly.

"In the con­stituen­cy, we had mi­nor is­sues, but we think that vot­ing will pick up again at noon," Ben­jamin said.

She ex­plained that there were hun­dreds of peo­ple at the Cowen Hamil­ton Sec­ondary School which housed three polling sta­tions.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the school, dozens of peo­ple had lined up in front of the build­ing. Vot­ing flowed smooth­ly but some elec­tors like Gajraj Ram­jat­tan said he hoped that the process could have been faster.

"I spent about one hour in the line, but I am hap­py I got through," Ram­jat­tan said.

Glen Gra­ham was ea­ger to say the par­ty he vot­ed for say­ing, "I vote for Gyp­sy, he is from the ris­ing sun."

Gyp­sy had been part of the UNC but switched and be­came the PNM can­di­date for the area.

The cam­paign in the area turned vi­o­lent ear­li­er this week when then for­mer coun­cil­lor Phillip Gon­za­les was stabbed four times.

Gon­za­les, 58, was sit­ting in a maxi taxi at Basse Terre Vil­lage, Moru­ga, when he had a con­fronta­tion with an­oth­er man. The sus­pect pulled out a blade and stabbed Gon­za­les be­fore flee­ing on foot. He re­mains ward­ed in a sta­ble con­di­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.