Mark astounded by EBC ' neutering'

■ Anna Ramdass

anna.ramdass@trinidadexpress.com

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark says he was astounded to learn that the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) requested $20 million from the Government but only received $2 million, and the lack of funds caused it to discontinue its field verification exercise.

A seven-member team from the United National Congress (UNC) met with EBC officials on Thursday, including Mark, UNC chairman Davendranath Tancoo, party general secretary Peter Kanhai, St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen, Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein, UNC campaign manager Feroze Khan and activist Vijay Gosine.

The group met with the EBC delegation which included Chief Election Officer Fern Narcis-Scope and others. In a telephone interview with the Express yesterday, Mark said the EBC confirmed it had to stop the field verification exercise because it did not receive sufficient requested funding from the Ministry of Finance.

He said the EBC also indicated the Finance Ministry had promised to provide the Commission with additional funding in the mid-year review, but this was not done. This led to the EBC having to use recurrent expenditure to pay bills related to the field verification exercise.

Mark said the lack of funding also meant that a project manager hired by the EBC through public tender to manage the field verification process had to be disengaged because the EBC did not have the funding to keep the person employed.

Finance Minister Colm Imbert has effectively compromised the effectiveness of the EBC in the execution of its mandate to verify the voters list, Mark argued.

'In neutering the EBC, Imbert has brought the EBC into dependency which had implications for democracy via the integrity and confirmation of the EBC list,' he told the Express.

Mark said the heartbeat of any democracy was to have an accurate list of electors so that when people go to vote there is no room for irregularities.

He said not having a field verification exercise completed means the voters list could be populated with names of deceased people. Mark recalled the last field verification where a house-tohouse survey was conducted between 2001 and 2004, which means it has been 20 years since an up-to-date survey has been done.

'There are so many people who are on the list of electors who are dead and because of that lack of verification to update the list with the most recent information,' Mark claimed.

He insisted the People's National Movement (PNM) Government has undermined the election process which is essential for democracy.

'How the hell Imbert can justify not providing funds to the EBC when they spent $250 million to retain Train 1 which never came back up because it dead...they wasted this money but can't find $20 million for the EBC to conduct a proper houseto- house verification campaign to ensure we have an accurate list of electors?' said Mark.

He said the UNC intends to raise these issues in the Parliament.

Mark said the EBC as an independent commission should receive a dedicated allocation and percentage of the national budget to conduct necessary work and not be dependent on the Finance Minister's goodwill.

He insisted the Government has, in effect, withheld the funds and compromised the EBC's work.

Election observers

While the UNC welcomes Caricom observers for the general election, there is need for international observers, especially since there is not an updated voters list. Mark said the UNC wants representatives from the Organisation of American States (OAS), the United Nations (UN) and the Commonwealth Secretariat to send a 'powerful delegation' to monitor the general election next year.

'We have to ask what does the Prime Minister have to hide? Why is he cherry-picking and does not want to be transparent?' asked Mark.

He noted that when then-opposition leader Dr Keith Rowley called for international observers for the 2015 general election, then-prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar complied and invited a delegation because she had nothing to hide.

MET WITH EBC: Members of the United National Congress (UNC) delegation that met with Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) officials on Thursday-back row, from left, UNC campaign manager Feroze Khan, activist Vijay Gosine, Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein and Opposition Senator Wade Mark; seated, from left, St Augustine MP Khadijah Ameen, UNC chairman Davendranath Tancoo and the party's general secretary, Peter Kanhai.