The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net FREEPORT - Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said preparations for the 2012 general election are going very well and that attention is now being directed to registering Bahamian students overseas. He noted that the government will have to make "a little tweak" in the law to accommodate the situation with students in Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad who are entitled to be registered to vote. "The way we wrote the law only permits it to happen at a place where we have a mission, and we don't have a mission in any of those places so we have to tweak the law to be able to accommodate them," he said. Mr Ingraham said the parliamentary commissioner has already travelled to Miami where he was able to explain the voter registration process to representatives from Atlanta, Washington and New York. "We will be going to Canada, and I think London has already been done," he said. The prime minister said that the government wants the maximum number of persons to register to vote. "We would like to encourage full participation by the citizenry of the Bahamas in the electoral process; those who are qualified to vote. "You will note in recent times a story in the newspaper about a Jamaican who had a voter's card and passport. "I expect that in due course when investigations are completed that charges are likely to be made against persons who facilitate such a thing," said Mr Ingraham. Mr Ingraham stressed that the government wants an orderly election process and many things still need to happen before an election date is set. "We are taking time to make sure that the election procedures and other things can be done prior to calling an election. "It is unthinkable, and it happened the last time, for the parliamentary commissioner to hear the House of Assembly resolved by an announcement on the radio. "The first thing a prime minister does is to find out how are we in respect to preparation for election and what else do you need to do; and once we are satisfied that all those things are done, then we fix dates. "We don't fix dates because we wake up one morning and say, 'let's go.'" Prime Minister Ingraham welcomes any international organisation wishing to monitor the elections in the Bahamas. "For the first time in the history of the Bahamas, the Government of the Bahamas will say publicly that any international organisation that wishes to monitor elections in the Bahamas, they can send monitors to the Bahamas to see how the process goes and to be able to comment on it, are free and welcome to do so. "If they let us know we will facilitate and accommodate them whether it's the United States or the United Nations; whoever monitors election, the Jimmy Carter group who monitors elections around the world, can come to the Bahamas to see how the election is done. They can come because we will have an open, fair, and transparent process," he said.