Smooth sailing in Arima by-election

In the Arima Central district, voters starting exercising their right from 6am. There were no lines to vote in the local governement by-election at any of the four voting centres, but trickles of people arrived to cast their ballots.

The PNM's candidate, Dr Juliet Hilary Bernard, was unable to vote, as she does not live in the district. But she accompanied the former representative, ow D'Abadie/O'Meara MP, Lisa Morris-Julian. The pair came together at the Arima Central Secondary School around 8am.

Asked how she felt going into the election, Bernard said, "I'm feeling extremely positive. To God be the glory. The Arima Central burgesses will be well served."

She wasn't too concerned about the number of voters early in the day.

"People vote at various times of the day, so we are monitoring who should have voted according to what they said. Things are going very well. Everything seems to be going smoothly everywhere."

MP Morris-Julian said, "Everything went smoothly and it took me five minutes to vote."

UNC's candidate school bus driver Sheldon "Fish" Garcia voted at the Arima New Government School around 11.30am and was accompanied by St Augustine and San Juan/Barataria MPs Khadijah Ameen and Saddam Hussein.

Garcia didn't say much other than to confirm that the voting process was easy. Other voters expressed the same sentiments.

There are six polling divisions in the Arima Central district.