Early voter turnout at polling stations

On December 9, voters across St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) flocked to their polling stations to cast their ballots in this historic election – with the majority turning out early.

Although polling stations throughout the 15 constituencies opened at 7 a.m., several observers at various locations reported that the long queues started as early as 6 a.m.{{more}}

Voters steadily piled into the majority of the 232 polling stations, eager to ink their voting fingers, up until 11 a.m. to midday — after which voter turnout started trailing off.

With a generally low-key atmosphere throughout the multi-island state, approximately 65,684 (preliminary count) of the 89,527 eligible voters cast their ballots — a voter turnout of 73.4 per cent.

As SEARCHLIGHT travelled throughout the island, it was observed that although persons were exuberant in their belief that their preferred party was going to win, their attitudes toward each other were congenial and mostly tolerant.

Throughout SVG, small groups of supporters from both the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Unity Labour Party (ULP) could be seen congregating peacefully in close proximity to each other.

In South Rivers, SEARCHLIGHT encountered a few ULP supporters, who were preparing a whole pig near to a river — anticipating that the ULP would come out successful in the general election.

SEARCHLIGHT also noted that observers from both major political parties were present at polling stations and had been maintaining the 100 yard limit.

The only physical incident that SEARCHLIGHT received news of was an altercation between a photographer/journalist and a Paul’s Avenue resident at a polling station in East Kingstown.

This resulted in the photographer/journalist being taken into police custody overnight, and the Paul’s Avenue resident being treated for minor wounds at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.(JSV)