One of the teams contesting the Public Services Association (PSA) election, PSA Defenders, is calling for an investigation into irregularities such as voter padding that has surfaced on the eve of elections tomorrow. While a meeting for polling officers was being held in the PSA headquarters on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, Defenders held a media conference in front of the building.
Raymond Butler, presidential candidate of the PSA Defenders, said, “We had to file an injunction to have them produce an electoral list of voters, and we had less than two weeks to examine the list. “Upon examination we discovered that there were people who were named on the list who would have either retired or taken VSEP (Voluntary Separation of Employment) from WASA, and there are over 730 people who took VSEP and we’re seeing their names appearing on the list.
“There are discrepancies where people with no membership numbers apparently were given temporary numbers to vote and we’re uncertain when and how many were assigned.” Butler said his team submitted 42 forms for their polling agents and only received nine yesterday. Without the authorisation letters these polling agents would not be able to operate tomorrow.
He said the PSA claimed there were independent observers for the election, however they hadn’t identified what organisation they belonged to and they were instructed to give their reports to election officers bringing into question their impartiality. Another cause of concern, Butler said, was that people who sat the presiding officers exams and passed were then told that they had failed and were replaced by EBC (Elections and Boundaries Commission) officials.
He said there were bona fide members whose names and union numbers were not on the list. According to Butler, in a previous interview Duke said there were approximately 20,000 members registered to vote in the PSA election. However, the final voting list the team was given showed 17,592 members eligible to vote. He advised those members who did not see their names on the list to walk with their identification card and pay slip in the event that occurred on election day.
Butler said it would be remiss of the team not to bring to light these irregularities and discrepancies.