PSA candidates unhappy over election results delay

over 4 years in TT News day

Candidates who ran in the elections for the Public Services Association (PSA) executive are not pleased at the delay in the results, with one suggesting the slow counting was a ploy to tilt the outcome in favour of a particular contender.
The elections were held on Monday after three years of legal battles stemming from former candidate Solomon Gabriel's concerns over the voters' list in 2017.
Initial results posted on the PSA's Facebook page on Tuesday suggested sitting president Watson Duke was in the lead, with Oral Saunders running a distant second. These figures were later deleted.
Up to 5 pm on Wednesday no results were available from PSA officials.
Contacted for comment, leader of Team Sentinel Nixon Callender accused Duke's Game Changers' party of deliberately using special ballots to slow down the voting process and frustrate registered members out of voting.
He suspected voters were transported away from their designated polling stations to other areas, where they had to use special ballots, in a time-consuming procedure.
"What transpired is, they took maxis and took workers who were not supposed to be working at certain stations. When those (workers) joined those lines, they actually clogged up the lines of the registered voters for that station. Those special ballots there is a longer process.
"What happened in many of these polling stations caused several people, public officers from ministries who are eligible to vote in those stations, to be frustrated and not cast their votes."
Newsday also spoke to leader of the Labour Warriors Ian Murray, who said such a lengthy delay in the release of election results was almost unheard of, and was concerned over the sluggish pace at which votes were being counted.
"Having been a member for the past 38 years, I think this is the first time that the PSA has had elections and the preliminary results were not released on the same night of the election. We normally have preliminary results and then the final tally would come a day or so after.
"But this is the first time this has happened, and given all the discrepancies that have been reported, it's really troubling."
Murray said he would not be discouraged in the event of defeat, as a lawsuit has already been filed, challenging the legality of the elections,which could possibly nullify the results.
Newsday tried to contact Duke for comment but was unsuccessful.
The post PSA candidates unhappy over election results delay appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.

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