CHARLES Albury
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
CHARLES Albury, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, will replace Sherlyn Hall and serve as Acting Parliamentary Commissioner until the post is substantively filled, the government announced on Friday.
Mr Hall's troubled tenure as Parliamentary Commissioner culminated in Wednesday's chaotic advanced poll for the general election, which saw many voters wait for hours in long lines and, in some cases, not able to vote because their names were not on the register.
Mr Hall's contract with the government expired on Thursday but it had been unclear how the government would proceed with the post with the general election just days away.
A Cabinet's press release on his replacement on Friday evening said: "The Cabinet Office advises that with effect from 6th May 2017 Mr Charles Albury will serve as Acting Parliamentary Commissioner until the post is substantively filled."
"Mr Albury has served with distinction in the public service in various ministries for more than 30 years. His present substantive post is Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism. The Government looks forward to drawing on his extensive experience in the public service and in particular his previous distinguished service in the Parliamentary Registration Department."
On Wednesday, ballot boxes arrived late at the Kendal Isaacs Gym, the voting location, and voting did not begin until more than an hour after the scheduled 8am start.
And although it was advertised that both the gymnasium and the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium would be used as polling sites, voting only took place at the former.
Mr Hall deflected most of the criticisms of his performance when questioned by the press on Thursday and appeared to blame Carl Smith, the permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security and the returning officer for the poll, for the chaos.
Asked if the dysfunction was an attempt at sabotage, Mr Hall did not dismiss the idea.
Throughout Friday some PLP insiders pushed the idea that Mr Smith was to blame for the chaos, saying he was politicially motivated.
Mr Smith could not be reached for comment and it is unclear if he will face any consequences for the role he may have played in Wednesday's debacle.
This week's advanced poll was not the first time Mr Hall had become a magnet for criticism, however.
After the 2016 referendum on gender equality, he was criticised for overseeing a confusing process that resulted in the referendum results not being disclosed until the day after the voting had taken place instead of that night.
During the lead-up to next week's election, the Parliamentary Registration Department had also faced criticism for turning away people who workers said failed to adhere to their prescribed dress codes. And inconsistencies in the voting register were also highlighted regularly.
Comments
John 6 years, 11 months ago
Don't ever let anyone have a reason to reject and overturn the results of next weeks election. The Bahamian people will speak resoundingly. Either they will want to be delivered out of the wilderness or they will want to remain in that city of mystery Babylon. The inhabitant ion of demons and every dirty bird.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
Is Charles Albury an upgrade over Sherlyn Hall?????? ......... Can the three major party leaders come out publicly and reassure Bahamians that the electoral process is above reproach with BJ and Albury now in charge?????? .......... Will Albury be able to clean up the "insubordinates" in the PRD in time for redistribution of ballot boxes???????? ......... Can the voting public have assurance that we will get fair and comprehensive election results by midnight May 10th??????? .............. Who will speak to these issues?????????
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
Hall has been replaced .......... Hall was the Fall Guy ........ But the bigger issue is that ..... Do senior civil servants who are appointed by the GG/PSC or the PM/LOTO etc have the testicular fortitude to be able to resist the urge to bow to political pressure and compromise their integrity for further promotion???? ........... We like to talk bad about the low level civil servant, but the real problem is at the top of the civil service (where positions are almost always hand-picked)
ThisIsOurs 6 years, 11 months ago
I don't know. I'm EXTREMELY disturbed by reports of the DPM and the AG in meetings with the Parliamentary Secretary on Election Day. To the extent that they saw absolutely nothing wrong with their actions. The image of Prime Minister standing unashamedly within 100 feet of Valentine Grimes and a ballot box. I am sorry for Mr Hall, this was beyond his competence and those people played him like a fiddle.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
And when all hell breaks loose on election day Charles Albury will point his finger at Sherlyn Hall, Sherlyn Hall will continue pointing his finger at his underlings, Christie and Maynard-Gibson will point their fingers at Hall and Albury, and the end result will be a stolen general election with no accountability. Christie and Maynard-Gibson came to the realization that they can simply ignore or 'fix' the outcome of elections when they were able to successfully defy the wishes of the Bahamian people as expressed in the very costly national referendum that was held on the 'legalization' of the gaming web shops. The fact that the corrupt Christie-led government got away with ignoring the majority vote of voters in that national referendum was the decisive moment when Christie and Maynard-Gibson realized that elections don't really matter anymore because they are now able to get away with just about anything...including flipping their middle finger at the Bahamian people! It was the weakness and incompetence of none other than the dimwitted Minnis as opposition leader that emboldened the PLP to soar to new heights of blatant corruption. The greedy corrupt power hungry Minnis now eagerly awaits his turn to drink from the trough known as the people's public purse, a trough which Minnis has every intention of refilling with a new round of hefty back-breaking government taxes, fees and borrowings that he and his select few cronies like Symonette and D'Aguilar can then pillage and plunder! Truly a sad state for all of us but the very few as we soon head to the polls. I for one will not be rewarding Minnis with a vote for having failed so miserably as opposition leader...after all, why should he be rewarded for his failings!!! It's really as simple as that in my mind.
banker 6 years, 11 months ago
LOL !
by banker
Too many words and letters. Here is the edit:
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Giving Minnis the chance to be PM is about as bad as giving Lucifer the chance to be Pope. And I'm not endorsing Christie! At this point I can only pray you don't get what you're praying for, i.e. the worst of all evils bar none!!
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
You are one bitter, twisted, jilted sucker!!!!!!! ......... So, you want the PLP to win again????? ........... I assume you do not presently live within the borders of The Bahamas ............ Minnis will shock many of you Esaus and Sarais
MassExodus 6 years, 11 months ago
Wellmuddatakesic your retarded if you think Perry Christie getting back in would be an upgrade over Minnis full-stop, end of sentence, period.
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
For what it's worth, I've been called worse by worst.
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
Where are the international election observers?????? ....... Do Hubert Minnis, LBT, Bran and the ten other "party leaders" have NO public statement to make about this major crisis in the Parliamentary Registration Department???? .......... Not a grunt from them on ZNS ...... Is there any reaction on any other standard national media outlets (excluding Facebook Live)????
Alex_Charles 6 years, 11 months ago
there are 4 observer groups to my knowledge
viewersmatters 6 years, 11 months ago
Lol say zns, have anyone seen any political party except PLP hosting or broadcasting anything to endorse third party on ZNS?
bahamiangoddedd 6 years, 11 months ago
What I saw at the advance polls makes me wonder if the FNM really wants to win. Irregularities gone to bed and all Minnis said was the PLP is trying to suppress votes.
They are not trying to suppress voters, they are muddying the water to steal the election and blame it on the staff of Parliamentary. Just watch the PLP work come May 10th. They are good at what they do. Grimes is on the PM like a shadow. Just wait!
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
Yep ......... Minnis has to get dirty or he will end up like KGL Isaacs ....... The PLP are desperate to win at all costs ........ The Perry Cabinet know the dirt that the FNM will expose on them after May 10
Reality_Check 6 years, 11 months ago
While opposition leader in the HOA, Minnis could not even handle LBT and his other fellow FNM MPs, eventually resulting in his replacement as leader of the opposition and much embarrassment for the FNM. Truth be told, Minnis is responsible for the FNM party becoming much more like the PLP party than it has ever been before. Most of us familiar with the history of the FNM party never for a moment thought we would ever see the the day when the FNM party would have a Senator like Rodney Moncur or a party leader like Sidney Collie. These two come from the very bottom of the barrel. There's just no way in hell someone like Minnis could lead the government of a country even under the best of times and conditions, so there is certainly no way he could run our Bahamas as PM in the condition it is in today. And in any event, Symonette and D'Aguilar who control the FNM party's purse strings would soon turn on the incompetent feckless and weak Minnis and this would surely give rise to civil disorder of the kind we have never seen before as part of a cataclysmic break down of our government and democracy. Minnis for PM, hell "No!"...not by my vote!
sheeprunner12 6 years, 11 months ago
Soooooo, who is responsible for the consolidation and rise in the FNM after the December coup????? ........ Pray tell.......... smdh
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 11 months ago
Pleeeeeezzzzz try connect the dots for yourself....the dots are really all too obvious for those with an ounce of grey matter.
Reality_Check 6 years, 11 months ago
@sheeprunner12: The answer to your question is the Symonette family, the Mosko family, the Holowesko family, the D'Aguilar family and so on.
baldbeardedbahamian 6 years, 11 months ago
YOU ARE WRONG REALITY CHECK (REALITY CHICKEN?) THE FNM CONSOLIDATED BECAUSE OF PERRY THE CREDIBILITY GAP.TYHE PROSPECT OF THIS SICK OLD MAN SLEEPING AT THE HELM OF THE SHIP OF STATE FOR ANOTHER 5 YEARS WAS WORSE THAN COMING TO AN AN ACCOMMODATION WITH POLITICAL RIVALS.
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