Duke: No election-rigging in PSA

PUBLIC Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke flatly denied claims by rival candidate for the union presidency, Curtis Cuffie, of a plot to use computer software to rig the November 23 election.

Cuffie led members of his Concerned Public Officers (CPO) team at a briefing on the steps of the PSA office in Port of Spain on Thursday to level his charges, which Duke countered with two colleagues of his Game Changers slate in a social media video.

Cuffie said the candidacy of one of his team, Michelle Brown, was now being unlawfully challenged by the Duke team, being up for discussion at Friday’s meeting of the PSA general council. Brown said she was not personally told of any challenge to her nomination.

“It seems like Mr Duke and his executive want to postpone the election,” she hit out. “You’re trying to find all kind of nonsense to stop the election.”

CPO candidate for first vice president Loretta George said it would be a breach of PSA rules for Brown’s nomination to be determined by the general council.

She quoted the rules as saying a challenge is first determined by the elections officer, with any dissatisfied party free to appeal to the Elections Committee, whose ruling can in turn be appealed to the general council. Saying Brown might be disenfranchised and prejudiced by the Duke-led executive, George said, “The due process was not followed.”

She said after filing on October 15, Brown had got a phone call from an Elections Committee member saying her form needed a tenth signature, but that same day it was all rectified.

“At the time of filing the Elections Officer neglected to point out the flaw and approved her nomination,” George added.

She said on October 21, Cuffie was told a motion was moved to reject Brown’s nomination, to be decided on by the general council on Friday. “If members of the general council vote on this matter it can only be classified as a clear breach and obstruction to the process,” George said.

However, Duke denied any wrongdoing in a Facebook video with general secretary Felicia Thomas and candidate for second vice-president Avinath Maharaj. He said he has an impeccable character which some are now trying to tarnish.

Thomas said, “There is no software PSA has in place to use in any election.” She said software had been discussed but was not in place now.

Maharaj said the software was to help to create a voters' list but not to conduct the election. He added, “The purpose of the software is to map where the employees are working in relation to where they could be voting.”

Duke said the PSA has asked the Election and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and MIC for 100 ballot boxes each for the election, so any claims about software were baseless.

Thomas said it was she who had challenged Brown’s nomination, saying the election rules list three grounds to challenge any nomination one felt had not been properly made. “That will be discussed tomorrow at the general council.”

She said she had told Cuffie she was challenging the nomination as Brown’s form had only nine seconders, not ten. “So it is not an attempt to sabotage your team. We are within our rights. There is a way for things to be done.” Thomas said Cuffie well knows the rules.

Duke explained his team’s mock pilots' uniforms by saying he was promising public servants a safe flight despite turbulence ahead. Saying Finance Minister Colm Imbert earlier vowed not to talk to trade unionists about money, Duke said he will win the PSA election, after which public servants will hear the sound, ‘chi-ching,’ as he mimicked a cash register.