Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Since the an­nounce­ment of the April 28 date for the Gen­er­al Elec­tion, there has been a surge in the num­ber of peo­ple vis­it­ing the of­fices of the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) across the coun­try.

Cit­i­zens have been go­ing to the of­fices to check their vot­er reg­is­tra­tion sta­tus, to change their ad­dress and re­new and col­lect their iden­ti­fi­ca­tion cards in prepa­ra­tion for the up­com­ing elec­tion.

At the EBC Reg­is­tra­tion Area Of­fice for San Fer­nan­do and Pe­nal/Debe at Cir­cu­lar Road in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, there was a steady flow of cus­tomers.

Ce­cil Chin and his wife Eliz­a­beth moved to San Fer­nan­do two years ago, but Eliz­a­beth did not change her ad­dress.

With the up­com­ing elec­tions, how­ev­er, they de­cid­ed to vis­it the EBC of­fice yes­ter­day to have that rec­ti­fied so she would be able to cast her vote, to­geth­er with her hus­band at a polling venue with­in the Oropouche East con­stituen­cy.

Two weeks be­fore the elec­tion, John D’Abreau turns 70 years old and as long as he could re­mem­ber, he has al­ways vot­ed. Yes­ter­day, he said this year will be no dif­fer­ent.

“I came to see if my name is on the elec­toral list be­cause it’s my civic right, I want to vote.”

D’Abreau lat­er ver­i­fied that his name was in the San Fer­nan­do East elec­toral list, where he al­so found the names of his fam­i­ly mem­bers.

In­dar Ra­goonath said he was told to re­turn to the EBC of­fice in two weeks to col­lect his new iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card. He said there were a lot of peo­ple, but the process was smooth.

“I think I wait for about an hour or more. But, I did not mind wait­ing, I say I come here, if it tak­ing whole day I tak­ing the whole day. I spend the whole day and re­new my ID card,” Ra­goonath said.

EBC com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer Leisel Joel-George con­firmed that they had seen an in­flux of peo­ple at the of­fices through­out the coun­try since the elec­tion date was an­nounced. She said their work­ing hours have been ex­tend­ed, so of­fices will be open Mon­day to Fri­day from 8 am to 6 pm, Sat­ur­days from 9 am to 3 pm and Sun­days from 9 am to 2 pm.

She al­so re­mind­ed mem­bers of the pub­lic that they can vis­it the EBC’s web­site to check their reg­is­tra­tion sta­tus.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, she said the pre­lim­i­nary elec­toral lists will soon be avail­able at var­i­ous lo­ca­tions through­out the coun­try.