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Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"The process is one where we took a preliminary vote on 7 options and the vote by majority is that we were going to implement the party of the regulations that speaks to joining both the color and the symbol for the purposes of differentiation between the two parties but at the end of the day we must come to a final conclusion of the matter based on the returns that come in on nomination, you have the nomination forms which are filled out and then when we review that then we have a final determination which we had in our meeting, I think it was Tuesday, we had a final determination and another vote and at that time because of the fact that the two parties which are involved, if you want to call them parties, did not offer symbols, notwithstanding the fact that we had indicated that a symbol is necessary for the differentiation, the chose to come under the UDP party for the nomination application and chose not to use a symbol. So since the previous determination by the commission by vote was, well, you use the UDP traditional color, red, and the symbol then it was their choice to abandon the symbol so we didn't have any problem then to apply the color and since they had applied under the UDP on the form, clearly, it was one party that we're dealing with so we applied the red by vote that is, the commission majority vote, to all the 41 candidates of the UDP."

Courtney Menzies:
"But while that is a democratic process on its own, when you think about voters and voter confusion and what this will cause, these two factions, these are toddlers in a daycare where everybody wants their way, aren't you supposed to be the adults who say, no, everybody can't have their way, somebody has to get a different color?"

Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"That was the problem we're having. Because we're having a very severe antagonism by one side against the other and the suggestion was being made at all times that they should get together and agree on how they can differentiate and that is why the issue of the symbol came up but at the end of the day they did not bring up the symbols when the applications were made."

However, legally, the EBC does have the jurisdiction to assign colors or symbols as sort of an executive decision. But Puga said they chose not to force it onto them.

Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"We could have done it with symbols and colors, we had legal precedence for that, that was clearly established but in order to in effect not force it upon them because we would have had to force the symbol on them because they were not providing the symbol on nomination day, we had to proceed on that basis."

Reporter:
"And when you said we, the commission, but it would be the majority government appointed which would then…"

Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"The commission is made up of 5 people until the law changes that it cannot be changed and the 5 people are made up of 2 representatives appointed by the opposition and 3 by the government."

Reporter:
"And for the majority appointed by the government, I would imagine it would have looked like you're infringing on"

Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"The representative Ms Bailey, she voted with the other 3 members. That is obvious, that is part of the record."

Reporter:
"What level of public interest was considered when the commission decided to leave it this way?"

Oscar Sabido Puga, Chairman, EBC
"Totally but we're dealing with the issue of the contention between them and it had to be resolved because we had to do it because the law requires that after the nomination the sample ballots have to be prepared with the symbols and the colors so there was no other waiting, the election is coming up on the 12th of March and the law requires that we submit a publication to the gazette within 7 days of the elections so we had to do it."