Opposition MP Colm Imbert said yesterday the proposed boundary changes for San Fernando East will increase the number of UNC voters by 1,000.
He also said the Government delayed the tabling of the 2014 EBC Boundaries Report in Parliament to allow time for its supporters to be housed in HDC units in the said constituency.
Imbert said this while contributing to yesterday’s House of Representatives debate on the order, which was presented by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. She said the report, which recommended boundary changes to ten constituencies, was a legal requirement and was usually accepted without any adjustments.
But Imbert took the Government to task, asking why it kept the document secret for almost one year before tabling it in Parliament.
Imbert told legislators the Government was forced to present the order because the Opposition spoke about it publicly a few weeks ago.
He said the Government had the document since April last year and it was only laid in Parliament two weeks ago.
“It cannot be right for the Government to keep this information for a year and keep it to themselves,” he added.
He said there were several HDC units in Corinth and the Government would be putting people who were sympathetic to the UNC to live there in time for the polls which were due in a few months.
He said he didn’t “need anybody to try to convince me that the persons who will be placed into those HDC units will be very carefully screened and the Government will ensure these people have sympathies to the UNC, I have no doubt of that.”
Imbert said the UNC “can populate empty lots, they can populate lamp poles, they could put 56 people in a house, it does not matter.”
The Diego Martin North East MP said the PNM had people doing a voter verification exercise. He said every single bogus voter they attempted to put in the constituency of San Fernando East and any other constituency would be identified.
Imbert said the Government should give the EBC the required funds to do house-to-house surveys in the marginal constituencies.
The changes were recommended by the EBC because the amount of voters in San Fernando East was lower than the legal requirement.
Imbert stressed he was not saying there was anything sinister in the EBC’s actions.
He said the chairman and other commissioners of the EBC were honourable men. He said, however, he could not speak for other staff at the EBC.