A clear idea of who will win Chaguanas West should be established at latest by 11 pm next Monday, says Elections and Boundaries Chaguanas West returning officer Everard Ross. Ross said yesterday that this was because the Chaguanas West seat involved checking ballots from the boxes at 51 polling stations in the constituency where Monday’s by-election will take place. He said all systems were in place for the exercise, which begins at 6 am and ends at 6 pm.
Ross said 30 people had voted on Monday and another six up to midday yesterday after special voting began on Monday. Chaguanas West has 70 special voters, he added. Ross said the 51 polling stations are located within the area’s 30 polling divisions. He said 270 people would be involved in the exercise on EBC’s behalf. Each station would have five people, with additional people roving around the constituency, he added.
After close of poll on Monday, Ross said ballots would be checked at each polling station and a tally sheet with the total from each station would be sent to the returning officer’s base office. He estimated the first box’s total should arrive within the first 90 minutes after close of poll. Ross projected boxes would continue arriving in the next couple hours after that and he guessed that a clear trend for a winner could be established by 11 pm latest.
Ross, an EBC veteran, has been an election officer since 1970 and has presided over elections in various areas since then. Ross could not give an estimated cost for Monday’s exercise, however. EBC chief elections officer Ramesh Nanan was in a meeting when the T&T Guardian attempted to contact him yesterday, his secretary said.
Apart from the Chaguanas West election, staff at EBC’s head office said they are also “rushing” to prepare for local government polls due by October. They said a voter registration drive for that would have to be opened later on. At Monday’s UNC forum, the Prime Minister said those elections would come right after the Chaguanas West poll.
On costs among some of the parties involved in Monday’s electoral fight, UNC deputy leader Suruj Rambachan yesterday said he did not know the UNC’s cost and referred questions to fellow deputy leader Roodal Moonilal, whom he said was handling the campaign. Attempts to contact Moonilal were unsuccessful. Other UNC campaign officials would only say the cost was “within the $50,000 allocated within the Representation of the People’s Act.”
ILP leader Jack Warner didn’t answer calls. Sunil Ramjitsingh, who works with Warner’s team, said he had “no information” on Warner’s campaign costs. PNM chairman Franklin Khan said, “We estimate our campaign costs are minimal, about several hundred thousand dollars, small compared to the costs of our opponents.”