Health risk at EBCelection training

THE EDITOR: I submitted an online application in response to the EBC’s invitation for poll day staff. I had worked for the EBC at the three most recent elections and enjoyed it so much that I thought I’d reapply. Of course, the extra pocket change never goes amiss.

They called on Sunday to say I’d been selected and that training would start on Wednesday. In the past, the average number of trainees per class was about 30. No doubt this number would have to be reduced (or so I imagined) since the country was operating under a “new normal,” as the Minister of Health keeps blasting in our ears, week in, week out.

A stickler for time, I arrived at the training venue (El Dorado East Secondary School) early and was asked to sanitise my hands before being handed a copy of The Representation of the People Act and Special Elector Application Form. Since I was going to be working on August 10, I had to vote as a special elector or forgo the opportunity to cast my vote.

“Are class sizes going to be small this year – ten students perhaps?” I asked.

“No, more than ten,” was the reply though a precise number wasn’t specified. “We don’t have enough trainers.”

I thought for sure they’d have to limit class sizes in keeping with the public health coronavirus regulations that state:

“A person shall not, without reasonable justification – (a) be found at any public place where the number of persons gathered at any time exceeds 25...A person who contravenes this regulation commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for a term of six months.”

I proceeded to the room assigned and chose a table near a window, expecting to have the table to myself. Most certainly, two people could not have been accommodated at the one table without flouting physical distancing rules.

As the clock wound down, trainees started to pile in. I began counting – ten, 15, 20, 25, 30, 32! There were 32 students packed like sardines in the small classroom. Most of them weren’t wearing masks. Additional chairs had to be brought in but there was no room for more tables, so I had to share the table that I had hogged. There was little breathing space between the two of us and she wore no mask. I couldn’t wait to escape from that danger zone.

The EBC showed no regard for social gathering and physical distancing protocols. If this is any indication of how the EBC intends to manage the parliamentary election and the health risk it poses, then Lord help us. I won’t be attending future training sessions because I refuse to put my health in jeopardy.

In this country, rules are never enforced across the board. Our tax-paying citizens are rendered stateless by this Government, while CPL cricketers from countries riddled with covid19 are allowed to enter the country at the Government’s behest. What’s more, ordinary citizens are punished for breaking the social gathering rule of 25, but the EBC is allowed to flout the rule with impunity, cramming 32 oxygen-competing people in a tiny classroom.

TT is really a tale of two countries – a country of the powerful and privileged that can do anything and get away with it, versus a country of the powerless and pitiable whose rights are trampled upon at whim.

IRIS LEONA MARIE CROSS

via e-mail