Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) has con­firmed that more than 3,000 spe­cial elec­tors have so far cast their votes. Spe­cial vot­ing be­gan on Mon­day, and the EBC is ex­pect­ing 16,748 in­di­vid­u­als to par­tic­i­pate in the process.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment from the EBC on Mon­day, “Spe­cial Elec­tors are re­mind­ed that their vot­ing pro­ce­dure dif­fers from the stan­dard process and may re­quire ad­di­tion­al time. As a re­sult, longer-than-usu­al wait times were ob­served to­day at some lo­ca­tions.”

The EBC al­so not­ed that over 1,400 in­di­vid­u­als par­tic­i­pat­ed on the open­ing day, with the high­est turnout record­ed in the mar­gin­al con­stituen­cy of Aranguez/St Joseph. EBC’s Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer Fern Nar­cis told Guardian Me­dia 1,500 spe­cial elec­tors par­tic­i­pat­ed on day two yes­ter­day.

Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed a polling cen­tre on Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, where a steady flow of vot­ers was record­ed.

Corneil­ia Ince, a first-time spe­cial elec­tor, ex­plained that she signed up for the process as she will be im­mersed in the elec­tion-day ac­tiv­i­ties.

“I de­cid­ed I want­ed to be part of the process this year and de­cid­ed to work. I know some peo­ple who would have been do­ing it and I heard them dis­cussing it, so I de­cid­ed to try. For me, the process was smooth and easy. It was my first time, and it was a smooth process.”

Dami­an Ahow stat­ed that trav­el arrange­ments would not im­pede his right to vote.

“It was very smooth and easy, quick­er than the orig­i­nal elec­tion day ac­tu­al­ly. I had planned to be out of the coun­try; that trip was planned way be­fore the date was an­nounced, and I want to do my du­ty.”

Ker­win Mar­cel, who is at­tached to the pro­tec­tive ser­vices, said it was his first time vot­ing at the Fred­er­ick Street polling cen­tre.

“In years gone by, some­times we used to vote maybe in our head­quar­ters or sta­tion area, so this was a dif­fer­ence. The in­for­ma­tion re­ceived at the EBC of­fice where I col­lect­ed my spe­cial bal­lot was cor­rect, smooth, and it ran well.”

Ge­nieve Valen­tine told Guardian Me­dia that she was not tak­ing her vot­ing rights for grant­ed.

“I be­lieve that as you go through dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions and ex­pe­ri­ences with­in the coun­try, you will want to ex­pe­ri­ence change, and change can come in dif­fer­ent forms and fash­ions. Vot­ing is some­thing I’ve al­ways par­tic­i­pat­ed in be­cause as a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go, you want to see the coun­try run in a par­tic­u­lar way, and you have a say.”

Dur­ing an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, UNC’s at­tor­ney Dar­rell Al­la­har took is­sue with the roll­out of the spe­cial elec­tion, lament­ing the lengthy process and de­lays.

“The UNC is warn­ing the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty that a storm is com­ing. They could not even con­duct the first day of spe­cial vot­ing prop­er­ly, with a few hun­dred vot­ers hav­ing to wait hours to cast their vote. You could imag­ine on polling day when we have thou­sands of vot­ers com­ing out?”

Who is a spe­cial elec­tor

A per­son is el­i­gi­ble to be treat­ed as a spe­cial elec­tor if they are:

(a) a mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice, of the Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice es­tab­lished un­der the Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice Act, or of the Es­tate Po­lice es­tab­lished un­der the Sup­ple­men­tal Po­lice Act;

(b) a mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force;

(ba) a mem­ber of the Prison Ser­vice;

(c) a mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion, the Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer, the Deputy Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer, and the As­sis­tant Chief Elec­tion Of­fi­cer;

(d) the Re­turn­ing Of­fi­cer of an elec­toral dis­trict oth­er than that in which they are reg­is­tered for the pur­pos­es of the elec­tion;

(e) a Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer, a Deputy Pre­sid­ing Of­fi­cer or a Poll Clerk;

(f) a Polling Agent;

(g) a can­di­date or the hus­band or wife of a can­di­date for an elec­toral dis­trict oth­er than that in which they are reg­is­tered for the pur­pos­es of the elec­tion;

(h) an elec­tion agent or sub-agent who is reg­is­tered for the pur­pos­es of the elec­tion in an elec­toral dis­trict oth­er than that of their can­di­date;

(i) un­able or like­ly to be un­able to go in per­son to the polling sta­tion at which they are en­ti­tled to vote un­less they trav­el be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go;

(j) un­able or like­ly to be un­able to go in per­son to the polling sta­tion at which they are en­ti­tled to vote by rea­son of be­ing a pa­tient at a hos­pi­tal or in­mate at an in­sti­tu­tion;

(k) a mem­ber of the flight crew of an air­craft;

(l) a per­son en­gaged in off­shore pe­tro­le­um op­er­a­tions, or any oth­er per­son or mem­ber of any oth­er or­gan­i­sa­tion as the Com­mis­sion sees fit.