DaSilva leads protest at Electoral Office

“THEY DON’T BOTHER ME, I am not moved.”

That was the calm response of Supervisor of Elections, Rodney Adams while political activist Frank Da Silva led a small protest outside the Electoral Office last Wednesday.{{more}}

“We are calling on him to resign,” said Da Silva who told SEARCHLIGHT that he was willing to take the protest to outside Adams’ home.

DaSilva said that Adams has proven himself to be incompetent following the discovery of a ballot box outside the room where it was supposed to be stored on Saturday, March 31st.

Six teenaged boys who were looking for a table tennis ball that had fallen downstairs the Government Printery building where they were playing, stumbled upon the box which was from the North Windward constituency.

The discovery of the box triggered a barrage of questions and Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that the box’s discovery was either a case of negligence or mischief.

Police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the box.

DaSilva said that the discovery of the box was a show of incompetence on the part of the Supervisor of Elections and joined the call which was forcefully echoed on several occasions by Senator St Claire Leacock for Adams to resign.

Leacock, who was also present outside the office of the Supervisor of Elections on Wednesday said that he saw it fit to lend support to Da Silva. He said that free and fair elections go to the root of a democratic society and he was not confident that a free and fair election was possible while Adams held the post of Supervisor of Elections.

The ballot box fiasco had taken another turn when at a press conference two weeks ago Senator Leacock displayed a number of documents from polling station NWB which he said could not be accounted for by the Electoral Office.

Adams meanwhile has continued to maintain his confidence in his integrity and said that he moved in and out of his office as usual last Wednesday, again not bothered one bit by the all day protest action.

He also told SEARCHLIGHT that the documents that Senator Leacock had displayed were removed from a draw in his desk and he continues to wonder by whom, and how Senator Leacock came to be in possession of them.