RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In the midst of an im­pend­ing storm and es­ca­lat­ing cas­es of COVID-19, the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion on Friday con­tin­ued its prepa­ra­tion for elec­tions.

From as ear­ly as 9 am, EBC re­turn­ing of­fi­cers went to the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts in San Fer­nan­do to col­lect their spe­cial bal­lots in prepa­ra­tion for spe­cial vot­ing which will take place be­fore the Au­gust 10 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view, EBC Chief Elec­tions Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis-Scope con­firmed that spe­cial bal­lot pa­pers were is­sued to re­turn­ing of­fi­cers in the lead-up to the Gen­er­al Elec­tion. Spe­cial vot­ers, which in­clude those quar­an­tined for COVID-19, will get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to vote on a spe­cial day be­fore Au­gust 10. 

Ap­pli­ca­tions to reg­is­ter as a spe­cial vot­er closed on Ju­ly 17. There are 1,134,136 reg­is­tered elec­tors for the 2020 elec­tions. On Ju­ly 1, the EBC pub­lished its list of elec­tors. Cit­i­zens were asked to check their names by vis­it­ing the EBC’s web­site at https://www.ebctt.com/elec­toral-process/list-of-elec­tors/ to en­sure their names were on the vot­ing list.

There are 19 par­ties con­test­ing the elec­tion and 150 can­di­dates vy­ing for seats in the 41 con­stituen­cies, in­clud­ing four in­de­pen­dent can­di­dates for the seats of Ch­agua­nas East, Moru­ga/Table­land, St Joseph and To­ba­go West.