Defeated Kamla challenges general election results in Trinidad and Tobago

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is challenging the results of Monday’s general election, contending that the decision by the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to extend voting by one hour was unconstitutional and contributed to the People’s Partnership (PP) defeat.
But the EBC has responded, saying it has power under the Constitution to make the decision it did.
In a statement issued yesterday, Persad-Bissessar who leads the United National Congress (UNC) – the main party in the PP coalition – charged that the PP would have won the election had the EBC not given residents more time to vote.
The EBC moved the close of the polls from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Trinidad only, because of heavy rains which caused flooding in some areas. At the end of the count, the People’s National Movement won 23 seats to the PP’s 18, but the former prime minister has insisted that the results be declared null and void.
“The challenge is based on the sudden decision of the EBC to extend the time for voting from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. throughout the country without any official notification to the People’s Partnership and its constituent parties,” Persad-Bissessar said in the UNC statement.
“Information and data received by the party strongly suggested that the People’s Partnership was comfortably ahead in the polls at 6 p.m. “The march to victory was adversely affected by the sudden unilateral decision by the EBC to extend hours of the poll from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.”
She further charged that many voters were unable to cast their vote after 6 p.m. because EBC officials were themselves unaware or uncertain about the time extension; and there were other citizens who did not know about the extension and therefore did not go to vote past the original 6 p.m. deadline.
Persad-Bissessar insisted that if there needed to be a change, it should have been made with adequate prior notice, and suggested that the EBC could have allowed for continued voting the following day.
She said the legal advice that her party received was that the EBC’s decision undermined the legal framework which governs the conduct of the general election and was tantamount to a “shifting of the political goal post at the end of the game”. That, she said, might have affected the integrity of the process and the results in critical constituencies.
“This is a serious and important violation of the spirit and intention of the Constitution, the Representation of the People’s Act and the election rules. We will therefore file these election petitions to ensure that the rule of law is upheld and justice is done,” Persad-Bissessar said.
Interestingly, the prime minister’s own UNC had sent out messages about the voting extension, and used social media to encourage supporters to use the extra hour to cast their ballots.