Barrouallie women come out in support of Supervisor of Elections

A number of women from Barrouallie have come out in support of the beleaguered supervisor of elections Sylvia Findlay and on Tuesday took to the picket line on Bay Street where they held up placards.

The women, most of whom know Findlay on a personal level, initially positioned {{more}}themselves outside the electoral office, opposite persons, including supporters of the New Democratic Party (NDP), who are protesting the outcome of the 2015 General Elections.

Police later moved Findlay’s supporters further up Bay Street after insults were hurled at them by a few hostile political activists.

Placards read: “Sylvia is a good woman from Barrouallie”, “Please leave sis Sylvia alone”, and “Sister Sylvia needs our support,” among other things.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT, Elsa Daniel-John said that she has come out in support of Findlay not because of politics, but because she knows the supervisor to be a woman of integrity and class who would never engage in the things that the NDP is accusing her of.

She added that she has known Findlay for a long time and has no reason to believe that she is capable or was even positioned to do the things she is being accused of, as she was not at the polling station that day of the elections.

“She had a job to do and she did it and she did nothing wrong at all,” said Daniel-John while standing opposite Y De Lima on Bay Street, a few feet away from the other picketers.

Lovena Culzac said that she was on her lunch break and decided to join the protest next to the Bay Street bus stop as in her opinion, the NDP is giving the nation a wrong impression of Findlay.

“… she is a woman of class and one of the best educated persons coming out of Barrouallie and we are standing here as evidence that she is 100 per cent innocent of what they are saying,” said Culzac.

Annica Branch, another of Findlay’s supporters from Barrouallie, commented, “I’m in support of Miss Findlay, unlike those who are demonizing her. She is a woman of class and integrity and they must leave her alone; she did not do nothing wrong.”

Those sentiments were also expressed by Corella Roberts, who added, “I am here to support Miss Findlay. She was born and bred in Bagga and I know her for all my life. She is a very decent woman from a Christian home. She has taught many children and we love her and the reason we support her is because we know that she is not in any stupidness and she is not capable of stealing votes, because she is a good woman, very respectable and the whole of St Vincent and the Grenadines should know this.”

Linda Grant, also from Barrouallie said that she is glad that other persons like herself have come out in support of Findlay.

She stressed that it is sad to see the way Findlay is being chastised, degraded and downgraded.

“I know better than that; she has integrity and class and I know Sylvia and I know she is a good woman of virtue and it breaks my heart how they are bringing her down…it is unfair,” said Grant, who thinks that if the NDP are claiming that they have evidence that there was wrongdoing during the December 9 elections, let the court decide, as they have already filed election petitions.

“I call this harassment; it is not protests for rights, because they know the election was not stolen. It is unfair that Miss Findlay should have all this noise outside her office everyday,” stressed Grant.

Faylene King, the daughter of Findlay, said on Wednesday that her family was appreciative of the support that persons have been showing to her mother.

“We thank all the persons who are showing support and solidarity and we respect the fact that they went out of their way to do this picket. We appreciate the gesture and it means a lot to us,” said King.(LC)