HUNDREDS?OF mourners attending tomorrow’s State Funeral of late Prime Minister David Thompson?at?the historic Kensington Oval will only get a digital scoreboard view of proceedings.
Despite obtaining a ticket yesterday for admission to the ultra-modern, multi-million world class facility to attend the 90-minute service that starts at 9:30 a.m, those who will be accommodated in the 3Ws Stand (Worrell, Weekes and Walcott), won’t have an “eagle eye” view.
That’s because, it was clearly written on the pink tickets distributed for the stand, which is situated on the northern end of the venue and can accommodate 2 000 people, that viewing will be on the “digital scoreboard only”.
In explaining the reason for this, Senator Maxine McClean, who is coordinating the arrangements for the funeral, told the Daily Nation yesterday that it was not possible for everyone to have a “front-on” view.
“In order to facilitate people and allow for the full use of Kensington Oval, given its configuration, everyone won’t be able to have a front-on view,” she said.
Whereas a limited number of tickets were made available to the public for the 3Ws and Hewitt and Inniss stands, at most of the post offices where tickets were distributed, some people complained that they were unable to get a ticket for the popular Greenidge and Haynes Stand, where the view is expected to be “front-on”.
The tickets must be presented for admission to Kensington Oval and “guests” are asked to be seated by 8:30 a.m. There will be musical tributes, followed by two minutes’ silence at 8:58 a.m., signalled by the sounding of a saluting gun before and after the observance.
Meanwhile, there were long lines at the various post offices around the country and the Office of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Old National Insurance Building, Fairchild Street, where the tickets were handed out yesterday.
From as early as 8 a.m., people in the north of the island were gathering at the Holetown Post Office in an effort to secure a pass, and one man lamented that at least 50 minutes after the announced 10 a.m. start for distribution, that the process had not started.
Thompson, who became Prime Minister after his Democratic Labour Party won the 2008 general election in January that year, died at his Mapps, St Philip private home in the early hours of October 23 from pancreatic cancer.
