Ingraham: Get out and register

Hubert Ingraham, former Prime Minister of The Bahamas, registering to vote with his wife Delores at Government High School. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

As of Tuesday, January 31, 2017

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AS VOTER registration in the country remains sluggish - falling below numbers compared to this same period during the last election cycle - former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham encouraged Bahamians to register notwithstanding the inconveniences they are facing.

Speaking to The Tribune last night, Mr Ingraham said this is a very important exercise and is the only opportunity that Bahamians have to determine the party they would like to govern the country. He made the comments shortly after he and his wife Delores registered to vote at the Government High School in Yellow Elder Gardens.

As it stands, the number of registered voters is around 88,000, lower than it was at this same time last election season.

Asked whether he believed this spoke to voter apathy, the former prime minister said he was certain the numbers would improve once the constituency boundaries are officially cut, the Constituencies Commission’s report is tabled in Parliament and it is adopted.

Mr Ingraham said under Prime Minister Perry Christie’s watch this was the second time that the Constituencies Commission’s report had been behind schedule, preventing it from reaching Parliament. Under the previous Ingraham administration, the report had been tabled six months before the general election.

On Friday, Mr Christie said the report could be complete sometime this week.

While the nation’s leader said he does not expect any major changes from the commission, one of their considerations may present a challenge in that he could be faced with winning over new voters in his constituency if the boundaries there are changed.

“I’d like to encourage all Bahamians to register to vote,” Mr Ingraham said. “It is a very important exercise in democracy. The higher the percentage of people who register, the higher the percentage of people who vote. It’s the one opportunity that people have to determine who is going to govern them and notwithstanding whatever issues that might confront people, it’s the most effective means people have to determine the direction of their country by registering to vote and so I encourage them to vote.”

He also said: “Voter registration is an individual responsibility. It’s also the duty of political parties and candidates to encourage people to register and where necessary to assist people in getting to registration places. Some people take the view that to register and not get your card at the same time is an inconvenience so they don’t want to make two trips, as I would have had to do today to register.

“I can’t get a card and nobody else can get a card until the boundaries report has been tabled in the House and a new register has been produced. Then you have to come back and collect your card again.

“The last number I saw was all of 88,000 registered voters. When the boundaries were cut in 2011 there was only 100,000 people registered to vote and between November and the end of March there were 172,000 registered to vote. So 72,000 people voted subsequent to the boundary and I think the same thing will happen this time. I think that once the boundary is cut, the report is tabled and adopted and the candidates get in the field and encourage people to register to vote then that will happen,” Mr Ingraham also said.

It is possible that the completed constituencies report will reveal the reintroduction of the St Cecelia and St Thomas More constituencies that were eliminated ahead of the 2012 general election under the previous Ingraham administration.

However, Mr Christie said on Friday that ultimately he must still give the nod on these proposed changes. He made the comments during an interview with Our News.

House of Assembly Speaker Dr Kendal Major has said the commission delayed the release of the report in the hope that the sluggish voter registration will pick up considerably.

The next election must be held this year.

John 7 years, 2 months ago

Former president, George Bush, said when less people register it means less people will be voting. With 88,000 registered voters this averages to around 2,000 per constituency. And since the number or persons actually voting will be less it means a very small percentage of the population will be choosing the next government. This is not a good thing. Many Bahamian s are frustrated with politics in the Bahamas and still feel betrayed after the present government acted contrary to the out com of the gaming referendum. The internal battle and eventual separation of Loretta Butler and her following of the FNM did not help and so there is a great need like statesmen like Hubert Ingraham to come forward and restore confidence in the Bahamian people. Maybe even to get Rodney Moncur to tell his followers to register even if they don't plan to vote.

DDK 7 years, 2 months ago

Rodney Who?

John 7 years, 2 months ago

Rodney Moncur..he has influence over more Bahamians than you do, and has demonstrated more love for this country than you have.

Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 2 months ago

HAI is the furthest thing from a great statesman! You know the FNM party is no longer relevant when you have someone like Sidney Collie as its Chairman. Even those founders of the FNM party who are dead have rolled over in their graves. One can only begin to imagine the "low-life types" who now make up a majority of the FNM party's council members. It was none other than the very spiteful and bitter Hubiggity who left the FNM party in a shambles after he led it to a humiliating loss in the 2012 general election. Hubiggity was so beside himself upon losing his bid in 2012 to be re-elected PM that he made it a point to leave the FNM party an abandoned rudderless ship at sea that was all too easily (and quickly) pirated by the DImwitted Doc Minnis and his cohorts. Anyone who believes the FNM party is still a viable political organisation today is totally delusional from the worst type of wishful thinking - the type that cannot accept cold reality!

concernedcitizen 7 years, 2 months ago

Its customary under the Westminster system ,which we are , for a leader to step down after his party is defeated, as the UK leader did after Brexit etc .It is also customary for the opposition through the PAC committee to see all the books , remember Urban renewal or the quarter billion that walked out the front door of BOB, do you think PAC really sees the books ,,HAI was a lot of things ,some good some bad but for the billion he put on the debt during a recession,Kensian economics, we got a lot to show ,,400 million alone in the new airport ,roads ports etc .He also cut Watson loose before the BEC bribery scandal was even public .I,m sorry but for the 1.6 billion and climbing the PLP added to the debt and that's w/ 800 million in new revenue from VAT ,,I want more than some over priced buildings in Andros for 30 kids to learn farming and 4000 more civil servants ,and a drunken money loser called Carnival that I don,t think has put 20 tourist in hotel rooms

Publius 7 years, 2 months ago

While I do not agree with the viewpoint that Ingraham is to blame for everything the FNM now is since that viewpoint is patently absurd in my view, it is the way he left that I think even he, in retrospect, regrets. The problem with FNMs though, is that they are a party of zero personal responsibility. In their three victories, it was "we won", but in the loss, it was "Ingraham cause this." There is no question among honest people that without Ingraham, the FNM would not have won any of the elections they did. That being the case, I think Ingraham ought to have handled his departure from public life differently. He absolutely ought to have resigned as leader, but the way he resigned from Parliament was driven by raw emotion and not reason. That is no logical reason to suddenly castigate him like a dog as FNMs are programmed to do to their own. This is by far one of the most unattractive and frankly putrid attributes of the FNM party; the way they tear apart their own and refuse to give due and appropriate respect and gratitude to the persons who played key roles in taking them where they wanted to go, and in governing generally. It is one of the many reasons they are so weak as an organization now. Ingraham was one of their greatest assets after the loss. There were others too. They all were cast aside. Now what is left? Little worth talking about.

concernedcitizen 7 years, 2 months ago

I am neither FNM or PLP ,,Ingraham got things done that's what I like .He did when he was a PLP and Pindling intrusted him to do NIB ..He did as PM . The roads were started under Christie but IDB pulled the loan b/c Bethel trucking was incapable , they could never finalize the deal to start the airport b/c Bradley Roberts wanted a large payout from VSR as the approved food vender , when even Bahamians were eating from food ladies in the parking lot b/c the food at Café in the sky under Roberts basically was not eatable . Ingraham came in cut through the BS got the IDB and VSR back on board and got the airport and roads done ,Visible ,touchable structures don,t lie ,,. Was he perfect ,hell no but compared to the lastt five years I will take Papa any day.. Ingraham got things done plain and simple

Publius 7 years, 2 months ago

Yours is the same point I made earlier. He didn't do many things I think were necessary, but he also did do many things that were necessary. If you ask this crew now though who is behaving as though they have no record in government, they act as though nothing happened under their 15 years. If that is so, then why in the world would anyone in the right mind be asked to consider voting FNM.

John 7 years, 2 months ago

Maybe Hubert Ingraham followed the lead of Stafford Sands..At least he didn't leave the country

proudloudandfnm 7 years, 2 months ago

Vote for who?

Lol..

Yall gots to be joking.

I'm sitting this one out. Perry or Minnis. Don't matter. They both suck....

Publius 7 years, 2 months ago

How ironic. Back in the day, Ingraham would say "you can change the lines but you can't change their minds", meaning that regardless of the boundaries, the Bahamian voters know what they want to do and who they will vote for. Now all of a sudden, the reason that over 100,000 people have not yet registered is they are waiting on "the lines". Surely Ingraham knows better than that. If Bahamians will vote PLP, FNM, DNA or whomever, they will do so no matter what constituency they wind up in once the lines are finalized. Bahamians know that the election is now a heartbeat away. They still are not budging. If Ingraham really believes that over 100,000 Bahamians have not registered yet because they are waiting on a Report, he is out of touch. I think he knows better, but is choosing not to say.

When he tabled his last Boundaries Report, over 134,000 Bahamians had already registered, about 46,000 more people than at this late stage. They were not waiting on the lines. They didn't have a voters card to pick up at that point yet either. They were motivated to get ready to vote for the party of their choice. It seems the older politicians are finding it hard to believe that Bahamians are simply turned off by their choices and have lost faith in the process as a whole. They still believe that all Bahamians are either PLP or FNM and are intransigent in that view. Times are changing, and they seem to be in denial about it.

TalRussell 7 years, 2 months ago

Comrades! It's always good to see the former PM Papa Hubert and Mrs. Ingraham, out and about and looking super healthy good.

proudloudandfnm 7 years, 2 months ago

Yeah this waiting for the boundary report is a croc. Nobody wants PLP, FNM or DNA or that other religious party....

ThisIsOurs 7 years, 2 months ago

BUT WAIT!!!???? Are those bosoms I see in this photo? On a parliamentary registrar office employee? Why didn't Sherlyn Hall send her home to get properly dressed?

Sickened 7 years, 2 months ago

Inappropriate attire!

sheeprunner12 7 years, 2 months ago

Ingraham has a horse in the race .......... Perry .......... Greg, Bran, Minnis & LBT beware!!!!!!!

truetruebahamian 7 years, 2 months ago

I think that none of you have thought through our dire situation, but are happy to flap your lips and say nothing! Buy a typewriter, paper, an envelope and a stamp and consider what you say before sending silly stuff into what was a respected publication.