KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­er

@guardian.co.tt

With less than one week un­til polling day, the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is ac­cus­ing the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) of be­ing in ca­hoots with the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in or­der to rig the 2025 Gen­er­al Elec­tion.

UNC mem­ber Wade Mark made the al­le­ga­tion dur­ing an Op­po­si­tion press con­fer­ence held at the Of­fice of the Op­po­si­tion Leader on Charles Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

Mak­ing it clear that it has ab­solute­ly no con­fi­dence in the EBC, UNC said the com­mis­sion was nei­ther in­de­pen­dent nor im­par­tial.

Mark said, “A storm is brew­ing be­cause we be­lieve that the PNM is work­ing with the EBC to frus­trate the will of the peo­ple by steal­ing the next gen­er­al elec­tion due on Mon­day, April 28, 2025. A storm is brew­ing be­cause any gov­ern­ment that us­es the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion, which is sup­posed to be in­de­pen­dent, im­par­tial and fair, to frus­trate, un­der­mine or com­pro­mise the in­tegri­ty of the elec­tion process is beg­ging for trou­ble. We warn the EBC and the coun­try, do not frus­trate the will of the ma­jor­i­ty of the peo­ple in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Tak­ing it a step fur­ther, UNC al­so ques­tioned EBC’s Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis’ po­lit­i­cal al­le­giance while call­ing on her to tell the pub­lic if she is a mem­ber of the PNM.

Nar­cis: I am not af­fil­i­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal par­ty

UNC’s at­tor­ney Dar­rell P Al­la­har said, “Mrs Nar­cis-Scope, were you a mem­ber of the PNM or at any time a mem­ber of the PNM, ei­ther car­ry­ing your maid­en name, Fer­rn Nar­cis, or your mar­ried name, Fern Nar­cis-Scope, hav­ing an ad­dress at Carlsen Field in Ch­agua­nas? We’re ask­ing on be­half of the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, and we feel like you must is­sue a state­ment as soon as pos­si­ble clear­ing the air.”

When Guardian Me­dia reached out to Nar­cis, she said she has nev­er been af­fil­i­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal par­ty.

Nar­cis said, “I am not a mem­ber of any po­lit­i­cal par­ty, nor have I ever been a mem­ber of a par­ty. This has been ven­ti­lat­ed in the pub­lic do­main al­ready.”