SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) can­di­date for Barataria/San Juan, Sad­dam Ho­sein says there has been some con­cerns from vot­ers in that area that hand san­i­tiz­er be­ing used be­fore vot­ing is spoil­ing bal­lot pa­pers.

Speak­ing to the me­dia out­side of the War­renville Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School to­day af­ter cast­ing his vote, Ho­sein said he has been ad­vis­ing vot­ers as to what steps to take if this hap­pens to them.

"The blot­ting of the bal­lot pa­per would mean the bal­lot pa­per can be con­sid­ered a re­ject­ed bal­lot. We have ad­vised those vot­ers and those who are go­ing to vote that they can ask for a new bal­lot pa­per so their vote can be count­ed af­ter the close of the poll," Ho­sein said.

He said there has been a steady stream of vot­ers out even be­fore the polls opened in the Barataria/San Juan con­stituen­cy, which he says in­di­cates the coun­try is ready for change.

"Since 5.30 peo­ple have been lin­ing up in front of the polling sta­tions in Barataria/San Juan and the lines are still snaking and this shows there is a high lev­el of frus­tra­tion with this cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion."

Ho­sein said some vot­ers al­so com­plained about how long the vot­ing process is tak­ing with the new so­cial dis­tanc­ing rules in place.

"We just had sev­er­al com­plaints be­cause at sev­er­al po­lice sta­tions there are high vol­umes of vot­ers, the vot­ing is tak­ing some length of time and you have a lot of peo­ple stand­ing out­side in line which may lead to some frus­tra­tion where peo­ple have to stand in the sun for pro­longed pe­ri­ods of time."