By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
JUST over 170,000 people have registered to vote for the May 10 general election, Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall said yesterday.
This follows what he described as a “mad rush” of people registering to vote on Monday, the last day of registration.
There were 172,000 people registered to vote in the 2012 general election.
The Parliamentary Registration Department is now engaged with correcting and editing the voter register, ridding it of its much-publicised errors.
“We have enough staff to do this,” Mr Hall said. “We have to make sure it’s certified some 14 days after today’s (Tuesday’s) date.”
In accordance with the Parliamentary Elections Act, Mr Hall will give public notice of the election in newspapers this week, stating the date, place in constituencies and times when nomination papers must be delivered.
Within 14 days Mr Hall must also ensure that a list of presiding officers, returning officers and polling clerks appointed to attend polling stations is made available.
By law, nomination day cannot be earlier than the fifth day nor later than the tenth day from when public notice of an election is given.
Nominees must deposit $400 to be nominated. The money will be reimbursed if nominees win at least one sixth of the vote in their constituencies.
They must also declare their knowledge or estimation of their assets, income and liabilities.
Last Thursday, Free National Movement Chairman Sidney Collie 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.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Roughly 20,000 of the registered voters are duplicates or triplicates across different constituencies which will remain recorded as such through election day unless a computerized name-match exercise can be done in time to identify and purge multiple registrations by the same individual. Most of these individuals have very deliberately registered more than once in one or more constituencies because they have every intention of voting as many times as they possibly can.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years ago
Re-post: Every time I see this grossly incompetent Sherlyn Hall in the news on TV sitting at his very cluttered desk surrounded by mounds of untidy files, computer printouts and other papers, only serves to greatly re-enforce my view that he is totally out of control and does not have a clue about how to go about creating the mess he has created. Under this idiot, 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 mischievously using Mr. Hall's gross incompetence as a vital tool in their efforts to steal the outcome of the impending general election by hook or crook?"
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
Sooooooo , what was the population increase in the past five years????? ............ Why are there LESS voters in 2017 than in 2012??????? ........... This tells us the negative impact that the corrupt PLP and the lacklustre Opposition has had on the spirit of the average Bahamian ......... DISENCHANTMENT REIGNS
But we need to change the culture & direction of the present government ......... Vote FNM
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