UNC voting ends in confusion; many still waiting to vote

Voting in the internal election of the United National Congress ended at 5:00 P.M. Sunday with mass confusion and allegations of irregularities across the country, most of which related to the voters' list.

At the formal close of polls hundreds of people were still trying to cast their ballots and hundreds more had been disenfranchised. Many people who reported that they have always been members of the party found out that their names were missing from the list with no explanation.

One of them is a current MP who is also a member of the UNC elections committee

There have also been reports that election officials and candidates were openly canvassing voters at polling stations and in some instances candidates from the slate of incumbent leader Basdeo Panday were at polling locations with supplemental lists with new names.

And there are also reports that the UNC election officials are trying to move ballot boxes to the party's headquarters for counting, which is a violation of election rules.

The party has said it is following guidelines of the country's Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) but EBC rules state clearly that ballots are to be counted on location.

Chaguanas West MP Jack Warner is monitoring this activity and in at least one instance, had to block attempts to move the boxes for the Couva North constituency, which is held by Panday.

All through the election campaign there have been reports of manipulation of the voting lists.

The party failed to meet all of its deadlines for publishing the lists and tossed out 16,000 applications for membership, claiming that it did not have the resources to process the applications.

Those opposing Panday say the elections committee has rigged the vote and charged that the membership committee has deleted the names of anyone perceived to be supporting candidates other than those endorsed by Panday.

UNC officials have denied those claims.

This is the first internal election in the party's 20-year history in which Panday is facing a challenge for the leadership. Two MPs are running against him - Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Ramesh L. Maharaj.

But Maharaj has not been seen as a threat and throughout the campaign Panday has ignored him. For his part Maharaj has attacked Persad-Bissessar only and has often praised Panday.

With all the uncertaintaies and reports of irregularities is in unclear if preliminary results would be declared Sunday.