Ballot papers run out in PNM elections after high turnout

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Bal­lot pa­pers ran out twice at Ply­mouth An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School polling sta­tion yes­ter­day, as a high turnout of vot­ers for the in­ter­nal elec­tions caught the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment To­ba­go Coun­cil off guard.

For­mer To­ba­go West MP Sham­fa Cud­joe-Lewis, who chal­lenged ex-Mi­nor­i­ty leader Kelvon Mor­ris for lead­er­ship of the coun­cil, ex­pressed con­cern with the is­sue.

She first ad­dressed the mat­ter while speak­ing around 2 pm af­ter vot­ing at the Low­lands Mul­ti­pur­pose Fa­cil­i­ty, as she high­light­ed a heavy flow of vot­ers in some ar­eas.

How­ev­er, when it hap­pened again at around 5.08 pm, Cud­joe-Lewis was not pleased. She said she heard re­ports about vot­ers be­ing turned away. How­ev­er, a To­ba­go Coun­cil of­fi­cial said more bal­lot pa­pers were sent to re­plen­ish the stock at that venue.

There were al­so a num­ber of re­ports through­out the day of names miss­ing from the vot­ing list as well as mis­spelt names.

Cud­joe-Lewis had pre­vi­ous­ly raised con­cerns about the ac­cu­ra­cy of the vot­ing list. She said she was hope­ful the elec­tions su­per­vi­so­ry com­mit­tee was able to sort out the dis­crep­an­cies.

At around 8 pm last night, a PNM of­fi­cial said re­sults would not be forth­com­ing any­time soon ow­ing to the vol­ume of bal­lots to be count­ed. The of­fi­cial said re­sults were ex­pect­ed clos­er to mid­night.

Yes­ter­day, both lead­er­ship can­di­dates said a high turnout was a good sign for the par­ty.

Cud­joe-Lewis said, “A high turnout au­gurs well for the PNM. This is not about one per­son or per­son­al­i­ties. This is about our du­ty to re­build our par­ty.”

She said PN­Mites com­ing out to ex­er­cise their fran­chise is some­thing to cel­e­brate.

“No mat­ter who wins tonight, the par­ty wins.”

She said the par­ty was able to add 500 more mem­bers to its vot­ing list, adding she was re­spon­si­ble for the ma­jor­i­ty of those ad­di­tions dur­ing her many walk­a­bouts while cam­paign­ing.

Mean­while, at Bish­op’s High School, Scar­bor­ough, Mor­ris, the leader of the Team Uni­ty slate, com­plained about long lines at the two polling sta­tions when he ar­rived around 10 am.

“It’s a very te­dious process. I did try to make con­tact with the elec­tion su­per­vi­sor to ask if he could con­sid­er adding ad­di­tion­al polling booths so that it would al­low more peo­ple to vote at the same time,” he said.

Al­though con­cerned by the in­con­ve­nience, Mor­ris said he was heart­ened by the turnout.

“I am hap­py that af­ter 15-0 (THA elec­tions de­feat), we have so many peo­ple still in­ter­est­ed in com­ing out and ex­er­cis­ing their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right with­in the PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil to choose their next team of lead­ers.”

Asked, if suc­cess­ful, how he planned to make sure Team Uni­ty wasn’t just a name, Mor­ris said the heal­ing has al­ready start­ed.

He said his abil­i­ty to get for­mer PNM lead­ers Kelvin Charles and Tra­cy David­son-Ce­les­tine to ral­ly be­hind him shows what is pos­si­ble.”

“It’s about en­sur­ing we in­clude all the per­sons who par­tic­i­pat­ed, in­clud­ing my op­po­nent, and en­sur­ing we can go for­ward as one unit­ed PNM,” he said.

For­mer Mi­nor­i­ty Coun­cil leader Petal Benoit, a Team Uni­ty mem­ber vy­ing for vice chair­man, said be­ing able to en­gage mem­bers out­side a THA elec­tions and gen­er­al elec­tion helped strength­en the par­ty’s base. She said she be­lieved Mor­ris’ tenure in the As­sem­bly proved his abil­i­ty to lead.

“He had an open door where not on­ly PNM mem­bers and per­sons from his elec­toral dis­trict but gen­er­al­ly To­bag­o­ni­ans would come to him when they have an is­sue,” she said.

Par­ty stal­wart Umil­ta In­grid Roberts vot­ed at Bish­op’s and said she was hope­ful the elec­tion re­sults would bring sta­bil­i­ty to the par­ty.

The 76-year-old said she has been a PNM mem­ber from birth and was very sur­prised by the sweep in the Jan­u­ary 12 THA elec­tions.

Pas­tor Tri­cia Hen­ry, who cast her bal­lot at the same venue, de­nied the PNM was in a re­build phase, say­ing “that sends the wrong mes­sage.” She said there has been a dif­fer­ence of opin­ion with­in the par­ty and urged mem­bers to trust God and unite.

“Trust the man up­stairs, yield to him for what­ev­er you want and He will fix it for us,” she said.