Smooth voting for PNM internal polls

PNM voters who were given the opportunity to vote for the party’s internal election and did not take the opportunity to do so were unable to cast their votes during yesterday’s official day of the election. These included special voters and lifelong members.

Chairman of the election committee Murchison Brown said some may not have been in the country yesterday or may be working in another area, so that opportunity was afforded to them.

“There were some who took up the offer and there were others who did not. Those who did not, their names would have been taken off the list because their names were sent to the constituencies. The lifelong members were allowed to vote, but not special voters,” he told Newsday in an interview at Balisier House, yesterday.

He said about 35 per cent of those who requested to cast their votes last week turned up.

Brown said there were no reports of problems with people being able to vote.

“Once people provided the presiding officer with the necessary documentation and their name is on the list they were allowed to vote. If there is any query the presiding officer could call the office here with the secretariat so they could verify the person’s legibility to vote.”

He said just after 1 pm yesterday the highest voter turnout was at Arouca/Maloney with 300 votes being cast. In other areas there were some 150-175 votes being cast.

There were about 87,00-88,000 registered PNM voters eligible to vote. Brown said in 2014 they had about a 25 per cent voter turnout and would have to wait and see if that figure increased for 2018.

He said there were 11 positions out of 16 being contested and there were 14 independent candidates. Five positions did not have to be contested because there was no opposition at the close of nomination. These included the positions of political leader, lady vice-chairman, labour relations officer, welfare officer and treasurer. The position of the new position of social media officer brought the figure to 16.

Brown admitted that there were some reports of canvassing by certain parties, but the matter was dealt with by the presiding officers.

There were allegations that Toco/Sangre Grande MP Glenda Jennings-Smith and Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan were campaigning and handing out their slates at the polling station in Sangre Grande in breach of the voting regulations now on voting day.

When contacted, Sinanan dismissed the claim.