AND PAULA LINDO
Members of the Caricom election observer mission hit the ground running when they landed in TT on April 21, immediately meeting with stakeholders and observing the electoral process in the run-up to the general election on April 28.
In an exculsive telephone interview with Newsday on April 23, mission chief Ian Hughes said the team had met with the UNC, the EBC, the Prime Minister, the PNM, the NTA, and civil society groups, and planned to meet with other parties and organisations.
He said the team observed voting at one of the special voters' centres and timed the process. He said the team was satisfied that the EBC was following the regulations so far.
"While we are aware of some challenges with the initial special-voter rollout, in processes like this, there will be one-off instances and the EBC would need to re-visit these issues.
"During the week, we will be watching and listening to the rallies on TV. We will do a dry-run over the weekend in preparation for Monday, and meet to determine how we will deploy, zero-in on logistics. The idea is to adjust to cover as many areas as we possibly can over 12 hours of voting."
Asked what he thought about allegations around voter suppression, Hughes said there were always allegations, and investigating each one meant there would be no time for the team to observe.
He said in the era of social media where everything was recorded, someone making an allegation about bribes without witnesses coming forward or evidence caused credibility issues.
Newsday asked whether the team was aware of or would be informed of what statements were defamatory on political platforms.
"We hope on the campaign trail people will speak truth, say their plans and hopefully not malign other people. Candidates will always try their best to fire up their supporters. We would not know what is truth and what is fiction. That is why we rely on stakeholders to bring these to our attention and then we can do our own research."
The team will be deployed to key marginal constituencies on April 28 as thousands of people cast their ballot for their candidate of choice and pay particular attention to the vote-counting process.
Speaking to media representatives at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on April 24, Hughes said, “Keeping an eye on the marginals is important.”
“We will visit all of those.”
But Hughes said he was yet to be apprised of which were the marginals and asked media representatives to provide some clarity.
On election day, they will keep an eye on the activities at the polling stations as well as the counting process.
AZP News’s Prior Beharry said there were historical challenges to media having access to timely credible results from the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and often depend on the political parties for results.
Hughes said that would be noted in their report and that it should come from the EBC.
Media veteran Andy Johnson asked Hughes about two instances which were reported in the media earlier this week, a poll
