Kamla: UNC lawyers will push EBC to do national field exercise

OPPOSITION leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar says there are lawyers ready to ensure the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) completes the national field verification exercise ahead of the next election.

A national field verification exercise is done to establish a comprehensive list of the country’s eligible voters. It was last done in 2001.

In May, the EBC announced plans to hold the exercise “on both islands in the upcoming months (allowing) the EBC to fulfil its legal mandate of providing a comprehensive update to the country’s list of electors.

“The list,” the EBC said, “will ensure, as far as practicable, that each person whose name appears on the electoral list is listed at his/her correct address within the respective polling divisions.”

In a media release, the commission said it had met with representatives of the major political parties to inform them of the exercise,

On Monday, Persad-Bissessar, speaking at a United National Congress cottage meeting in Couva, questioned whether the EBC was actually interested in completing the exercise, because: “Not a single red or black cent was allocated for the national field verification exercise in (its 2024 budget).

“So how we going forward to a general election? When will this be done?”

The EBC announced its intention in May to hold such an exercise for the first time in over two decades.

“We have some lawyers’ letters (to send) because we have to do this field verification. We should not go into an election with a list from 2021 (sic).”

She noted that the EBC is constitutionally mandated to compile a report containing recommendations on boundaries before local and general elections.

The last boundary report for a general election was dated March, 2019, Persad-Bissessar said.

“By law, the EBC must submit the boundary report for the next elections before that date.

The report, she said, “will affect the credibility of boundaries.”

Persad-Bissessar said she wants to “put Keith Rowley on notice that (the UNC) will begin, as soon as the new year starts, calling on international observers for any next election we must have.

“We cannot go into another election without international observers.”