Former president of the Public Services Association (PSA), Watson Duke, said yesterday he believed he was well on the way to a return to the helm of the largest trade unions in the country. In a phone interview with the T&T Guardian last evening, Duke said his team, Game Changers, was ahead by at least 700 votes after Monday’s election, which sought to find a new executive of 13 members to lead the union.
However, Duke said at the time of the call that a recount was still ongoing and that the seven teams involved in the election were at the PSA’s head office in Port-of-Spain overseeing the process. An earlier call to officials indicated that an initial count had been done and showed Duke had won. However, the official said a recount was to be undertaken. Duke, however, said that his polling agents indicated that his team was well ahead.
Asked to comment on claims of voter irregularity, he said he would address the issue after the election results had been declared. Duke said he was hoping the process would have been completed last night. PSA’s election officer Versil Wright said on Monday that several voters’ names were not on the election list although they presented membership cards and pay slips. There were complaints by several of the 16,000 voters registered to vote in the election.
One of the presidential candidates, Raymond Butler, of team Defenders, was quoted on i95.5 as calling for fresh elections. In a CNC3 report, former secretary general Nixon Callender said the delayed counting of the 67 ballots indicated that the election was a disaster. He said some public servants were threatening legal action.
The six teams vying for the executive were Team Sentinel, Team Liberators, Team Phoenix, Game Changers, Team Defenders and Rebuilder. Both Duke and Callender were presidential candidates along with Terrence Regis (Team Phoenix), Raymond Butler (Team Defenders), Christopher Wilson (Rebuilders) and independent candidate Riki Cedeno.