Senior manager testifies
All eyes were on Court Five yesterday as the elections petition resumed with the arrival of a commission member to testify. PNC leader Hugh Desmond Hoyte and 30 women squeezed into Justice Claudette Singh's court to hear the testimony of Calvin Benn, senior manager of planning for the Elections Commission during the disputed 1997 elections. Benn who was led by Senior Counsel Doodnauth Singh, representing Chief Elections Officer Stanley Singh, said his duties included the distribution of voter identification cards in Region Four and he was part of a task force set up in mid October to speed up the distribution process through house to house visits and other measures. He recalled that his task force was in operation up to a few days before the election and submitted daily reports on its progress to the Elections Commission, along with briefing the press. In cross examination by Raphael Trotman representing the petitioner Esther Perreira, Benn admitted that some seven percent of voters in Region Four did not receive ID cards or had them returned to the commission because of flaws in the information on them. Benn conceded that up to the time of the election the issue of these cards was not completely solved. Benn said there were areas where card distribution had been a problem: Industry, Triumph, Cummingsburg and Queenstown, Robbstown, Lodge and Wortmanville. Trotman then turned to the CARICOM Audit Report and handing Benn a calculator asked him to work out the number of voters in Region Four who had not received ID cards--13,730 out of a total electorate of 200,295. "Is this lack of distribution in an area where the PNC had the largest support not a calculated and deliberate attempt to disenfranchise voters?" asked Trotman. "I do not agree with that," replied Benn. And in re-examination Singh noted that a number of ID cards were returned because the holders had either migrated or were deceased. Benn conceded that there were a few flaws in the distribution system but that "we did our best to reach everyone". Trotman shot back, "Was it not those same flaws that hindered you from doing your best? " "Yes," said Benn. "And were not those same flaws known to the members of the Elections Commission including its Chairman Doodnauth Singh?" he asked, causing a ripple of laughter in the courtroom. "Yes," Benn replied. The petition will continue today.
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