COP: Delays in filing election papers

Congress of the People candidates reported some delays on Nomination Day yesterday, as returning officers found issues with the nomination papers of several of them.

In a phone interview yesterday, COP chairman Lonsdale Williams said the party was not contesting entire corporations but electoral districts in four corporations: Diego Martin, Chaguanas, Tunapuna, and San Fernando.

On the nomination-day process, he said, “We had some challenges where we met returning officers who would have checked documents before, and now finding other issues that we have to deal with.

“But more or less it was smooth.”

He said the party was not putting up a full slate for any corporation "because we felt that we didn’t just want to go look to try and control a corporation, we look at representation, and so we have been selecting candidates based on their view that they can represent their constituents properly.

“We have looked for quality over quantity in this case.”

UNC chairman Peter Kanhai said his party's candidates had not reported any problems and noted they had told them to file their papers in the morning period.

“We told all candidates to get to the respective returning officers by 8 am, because the hours for filing is between 9 am - 12 noon and 1 pm - 3 pm, so we have mandated all our 139 candidates to make themselves available to the returning officers this morning, and not wait for the afternoon session.”

He said the candidates were instructed to return to their districts and continue mobilising for the December 2 elections.

“Today the focus is on nomination, and after that all candidates and their campaign teams are going to be back on the ground doing the house-to-house campaign, meeting the burgesses identifying the voters, getting the election-day machinery in place and as a party on the whole, there will be a series of meetings that the party will hold in strategic areas.”

Kanhai described Sunday’s local government campaign rally as “very successful,” saying it had attracted a “very diverse crowd" which was also reflective of the party’s slate of candidates.

Williams said the COP was not interested in staging major rallies as it did not have the kind of money the other two major parties did.

“Rallies do nothing more than spend money, and we do not know where they getting that kind of money from. Campaign-finance reform is still on the back burner.”

He said COP candidates were working at the ground level, and cited two examples of where he said they had made a difference in the community.

“In St Barbs/Chinapoo, we were able to get a tank for a pre-school, while in Curepe/Pasea area, we have done a lot of drainage cleaning, so much so the corporation sent a truck out to pick up stuff.”