00:00This was pretty smooth. I was elected number 149 in my station and for rural area like
00:08Spayside that is pretty high at this time of the day. Usually we would get a surge in the late
00:16afternoon hours but it meant that we had quite a number of voters early this morning.
00:22And that's 149 in the police division that I voted in because the station carries two divisions as it is.
00:33Any hiccups this morning? I understand there were some issues.
00:35Yes, there were issues in the west. The process for appointing sub-agents is one way the party
00:43by way of letter to EBC will list and appoint those sub-agents five days prior. We in fact did that.
00:52Sub-agents are the ones that replace polling agents in the polling station to observe on behalf of the party.
01:00So for example if the polling agent needs to use the washroom or to eat or to take a walk or to leave
01:05themselves or if they are late a sub-agent can act on their behalf. Despite doing that today our sub-agents
01:14were not allowed access to the station and so we had to call Mr Parison out because we did what was
01:22required based on the regulations and the law and there's absolutely no reason why our sub-agents
01:28were not allowed inside. That's unacceptable and I think that's something EBC will have to look at
01:33in the post-mortem of the events because it is critical. It meant that in a few areas we weren't
01:41able to witness the opening of the ballot boxes this morning and the envelopes in time because
01:50sub-agents were there. The polling agents were not there. We could not get the sub-agents inside
01:55because EBC did not do the necessary in informing the presiding officers at the polling stations
02:02that these were in fact our duly appointed sub-agents. So that's unfortunate but since that transpired we
02:10have in fact been having smooth operations generally and across the island I think we've seen a smooth flow.
02:18It would appear as though nationally we will have high voter turnout in this election.
02:25I didn't think that was what would happen initially because the initial days post the
02:33calling of the election were pretty quiet and mild but certainly we are experiencing generally a higher
02:42turnout and if that continues this day it means that we could look at numbers that might be more
02:48consistent with the THA election than the general election as you would know to be willing to stand to
02:52vote in larger numbers for the THA than the general. We look as though we would have a high turnout today.
02:58So Chief, we're hearing reports about salt at polling stations. Have you heard those reports and what do you
03:06think about them? I've heard the reports. I've seen some photos and you know I laughed when I looked at it.
03:15I really don't operate in the politics of superstition and yes we may in a very jocular
03:22manner talk about people's use of elections and so on and usually we just do that in a very jocular way
03:32but I don't consider myself with those things really because I operate on the basis of strong faith in God
03:44and I believe God has brought me and my party to this place and God will take us to the next level so I don't worry
03:52too much about those things. It's believing in folkloric traditions of Tobago that salt somehow cuts
04:01witchcraft. So I guess if salt was poured and salt in fact cuts witchcraft then it's all our benefit.
04:09Do you think that it could be chalked up to voter intimidation? It can be because in a society as
04:17us there remains you know a real fear a real fear that people might have about these these superstitious
04:24things about these things that they can't explain about the supernatural and it's just unfortunate that
04:31that in 2025 that we're still operating on that wavelength for modern society you know just
04:36unfortunate but it is what it it is and perhaps for us as politicians we probably need to stop making
04:43jokes about OB and politics because people perhaps really do take it seriously. What's your plan for
04:49the rest of the day? Right so the rest of the day I am going to continue around here. I am going to continue
04:56around north side because I did the east coming up. I will go to Charlottesville and around to
05:03Lansomy down to the north side quite quickly and then touch base part of the west to see how you're doing
05:10so my job today is just to just touch base with all of our workers. Make sure they're good.
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