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  • 2 years ago
Political Scientist Dr. Mukesh Basdeo says, the country is in a place never entered before as regards the recounts in the Lengua/ Indian Walk electoral district.

Nicole M Romany reports.
Transcript
00:00 This, after preliminary local government election results, put the People's National Movement's
00:07 candidate five votes ahead of the United National Congress candidate.
00:12 A recount called for by the UNC resulted in a tie.
00:17 There was also concern raised by the UNC about a rejected ballot that did not bear the initials
00:23 of the presiding officer.
00:24 Today, Dr. Basdio tells TV6 the voter is not to blame.
00:30 "The argument that has been put forward is that if it's no fault of the elector, then
00:36 on the elector side it's a valid ballot, but therefore it should be registered on the column
00:41 of the UNC.
00:43 The EBC has contended that the absence of the initials of the deputy presiding officer
00:49 is deemed to be invalid.
00:51 So the argument that the UNC is appalling is it as a result of what we call negligence
00:57 on the part of the EBC, of which the EBC, their claimant, is not willing to accept that
01:02 they are negligent in this matter."
01:04 He says the current situation is new to Trinidad and Tobago.
01:10 And what is so significant here is that, after two recounts, the vote is still split between
01:16 the two parties.
01:17 He says the country has entered into uncharted territory.
01:21 "The context will be interesting because we have never been in this situation before
01:28 with regard to a second recount in an electoral district or a voting local government or parliamentary.
01:35 We are aware it is best that the courts may be called upon to determine whether or not
01:41 the Act caters for such a scenario or is there a need to actually have what we call the re-election.
01:54 But it is ready to determine the validity of this single ballot."
01:58 He also weighs in on the performance of the Gary Griffith-led National Transformation
02:03 Alliance, which has formed an accommodation with the UNC.
02:07 "What it would have shown in the case of the NTA.
02:11 Its ability to actually muster the required number of votes in that corporation for it
02:17 to be allocated an alderman.
02:20 So it is considered to be an electoral breakthrough in the context of the NTA because it is where
02:26 their total votes accumulated in that corporation would have been used to determine the allocation
02:32 of an alderman."
02:34 Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
02:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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