By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
PARLIAMENTARY Commissioner Sherlyn Hall yesterday pledged that his department “has the ability” to produce a clean voter’s register, but said that can only happen if Bahamians do not “contaminate” it by registering more than once.
Mr Hall said that the honest “participation of all citizens” would be the determining factor in the department’s production of a clean register, adding that things would go a lot smoother if people “tell us the truth” about their registration history.
Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis also weighed in on the matter yesterday, and called on Bahamians to “assist” Mr Hall in producing a clean register, saying, “the correctness of the register is not the sole responsibility of the parliamentary commissioner or his offices.”
Mr Davis, while a guest on talk show “Darold Miller Live” with host Darold Miller, said while the “buck stops” with the Parliamentary Registration Department, the participants in the electoral process have a duty to assist officials in having the correct register.
Mr Hall was responding to The Tribune’s questions over issues raised by Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis over the weekend, when Dr Minnis said he is “doubtful” that the Christie administration could produce a “clean” register before the electorate heads to the polls.
Last Thursday, FNM Chairman Sidney Collie also raised “grave concerns” regarding the election register, pointing to the discovery of 72 pages of duplicate registrations, names printed of persons born over 200 years ago and some who were born in 2017.
Mr Collie described this as “negligence” and “ineptitude”, saying there are other “irregularities” that have come to light pointing to persons who were reportedly issued citizenship and voter’s cards on the same day.
In response, however, Mr Hall said “the register is only as clean as the cooperation we receive from the voters.”
“The clean register depends on the participation of all citizens,” Mr Hall said when questioned in the matter. “If citizens come and tell us whether you registered before or not, that helps us keep a clean register. Once we pick them up we’ll do our best to delete their names off the register. Because each voter is entitled to have one voter’s card. So if a person registered before and they do not tell us the truth, you contaminate the register.
“We (at the department) have the ability, sir. We’ve always had challenges in previous elections. The former prime minister said it correctly. Going way back to 2002, 2007, 2012, we’ve always had challenges. It’s a manual system, and people will not always speak the truth,” Mr Hall continued.
Meanwhile, Mr Davis said Bahamians should “appreciate” the fact that “we have humans dealing with the register.”
“We are prone to make mistakes,” Mr Davis added. “The correctness of the register is not the sole responsibility of the parliamentary commissioner or his office.
“Yes at the end of the day the buck stops with them, but we who are participants in the electoral process have a duty as well to assist in them having the correct register.”
Mr Davis used the example of somebody registering in Cat Island, subsequently moving to San Salvador, forgetting that they registered in Cat Island and consequently “registered again to their own misunderstanding.”
“I could bring that to the attention of (Mr Hall) and say ‘X’ person registered and they misunderstood and registered again in San Salvador,” he said. “I bring that to the attention of the commissioner and then he could eliminate one. So we do have that responsibility.”
Voter registration for the impending election officially ended at 5pm yesterday.
Mr Hall and his department now have 14 to 15 days to clean up the hundreds of reported errors presently on the register. There were currently around 167,000 voters on the register as of the weekend and to date Prime Minister Perry Christie has not announced the date when Bahamians can expect to head to the polls.
Comments
Maynergy 7 years ago
Inequality in the islands of the Bahamas
The treatment of how inequality and social evaluation is determined in the islands of the Bahamas involves many dilemmas. Look at Adam Smith’s concern with the interests of the “poor” and (any anger at the tendency for those interests to be overlooked and neglected) connects naturally to a concept of what looks like to an “impartial observer” an enquiry that offers many comprehensive insights on the requirements for fairness in social equity and justice throughout the islands of the Bahamas may be applicable. Patent inequalities in social arrangements and advancement is hinged to the knowledge that people have gotten to depend on political hawks to get employment and while may benefit from a judicial system of justice that could bear heavily on the entrepreneurial stream of dormant skills waiting to be release from our citizens. Can we say that the DNA, FNM, PLP or you name it (i.e.) any political groupings are prepared to advance an agenda that takes the country from the reliance on TOURISM into a wider economic timetable where all the islands could grow and the people benefiting from the same? That is the question Comrades, Partisans, Indigenous people of this land we called Bahamas? I must concur a coalition of many Candidates have presented to the public vast ideals where many areas our government could be “of the people and for the people” in the Parliament of the Bahamas. I hope the country’s interest would be placed first and then all the children throughout the Commonwealth would be “A PROUD BAHAMIAN” child. May the Universal God BLESS the Bahamian people.
242gyal 7 years ago
"The correctness of the register is not the sole responsibility of the parliamentary commissioner or his offices". You deplorable piece of crap. I heard him on the radio and I screamed while I drove. If a person registers, then it's up to the commissioner via his D-grade half assed trained team to get it right- not the person receiving the card from teeth sucking, nepotism favored, uncivil servants. The system like all other government systems are completely broken, corrupt, bankrupt and inefficient to the point of hilarity. Think NIB, RTD, landfill, VAT revenues, port authority scrambling to collect tax, Real Property tax, BEC, law enforcement, environment, education, NHI, Postal Services.... need I keep going? Scrap the whole place and start fresh. I am beginning to think that setting the place on fire is the best course of action. Collect the insurance money and look to a new day.
Greentea 7 years ago
This man is a joke. A poor, ineffective and incompetent leader and exhibit "a" of why this country is in a mess regarding reliable systems. He should have systems in place to police double registering, not depend on the "honesty" of Bahamians to do the work he is supposed to be doing. Mark my words- this election is going to be a mess.
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
PARLIAMENTARY Commissioner Sherlyn Hall yesterday pledged that his department “has the ability” to produce a clean voter’s register, but said that can only happen if Bahamians do not “contaminate” it by registering more than once.
Do we need to read any more into this story???? .......... He has already contradicted his ability to do exactly what the story caption says ......... This will probably be the most corrupt election in the post-Independence Bahamas (besides 1987).
Hall is a puppet of Perry ....... like the top COP and the DPP .......... What a disgrace!!!!!!!!!
athlete12 7 years ago
These guys are crooks
athlete12 7 years ago
At least they are giving us a heads up that there's a strong chance (99.9%) that the election will be rigged in some fashion.
Regardless the FNM winning doesn't make me feel that much better. Both governments over the past few decades have locked bahamians in a cage and neither has shown signs us letting us out.
But we are to blame because we stand and watch as the conspicuous scandals go on and on.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Every time I see this grossly incompetent man in the news on TV sitting at his very cluttered desk surrounded by mounds of untidy files, computer printouts and other papers, my view that he is totally out of control is greatly re-enforced. Under this man, the official register of voters has been made very much prone to errors and vulnerable to significant election fraud. I suspect the election results in many constituencies will make no sense due to glaring anomalies that will give rise to many formal challenges and take many weeks to sort out. Christie's refusal to sack Sherlyn Hall long ago because of his past failures must beg the following question: "Is Christie and the PLP using Mr. Hall as a vital tool in their efforts to steal the outcome of the impending general election by hook or crook?"
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