The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE suspension of voting in polling divisions of the Elizabeth constituency during the May 10 general election was due to an unspecified and premature decision to count advanced poll ballots for that constituency ahead of the final count, Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Charles Albury said yesterday.

Mr Albury also confirmed previous claims that some voters from the Seabreeze constituency mistakenly voted on ballots from the Nassau Village constituency that were sent to the former, blaming the mishap on “packing issues.”

However, he insisted that those discrepancies only occurred in two ballot books, and that there is “no other report of a misplaced ballot being elsewhere in that particular constituency”.

Despite that, however, Mr Albury said there were no reports of voter irregularities and/or voter fraud in the general election, and that the process was handled “professionally, everything was smooth, and everything was in place”.

Concerning the Elizabeth ballots, candidates had previously claimed that 144 unused ballots from the advanced poll were “missing,” resulting in voting in polling division 11 being stopped for more than two hours. There were also allegations that the division’s ballot box had been “unsealed”.

Yesterday, Mr Albury explained that despite the law mandating that advanced poll ballots be placed in a sealed envelope and placed in a particular polling station box to be opened and counted at the end of the day, “for some reason it was determined necessary to count those ballots beforehand”.

Mr Albury said this led to “some confusion” over the ballots for that constituency, as he said officials initially came up one ballot short. After counting the 256 advanced poll ballots three times, Mr Albury said officials discovered that “two ballots were stuck together”, which he said accounted for the alleged missing ballot and contributed to the suspension of voting for that particular poll.

“The reason we place the advanced poll ballots in a particular box because that box would be the station where the person who worked on advanced poll day would be working,” Mr Albury explained. “On advanced poll day the ballots are counted, not in terms of who voted for whom, but just in terms of the total number of ballots cast. And they’re supposed to be put in a sealed envelope and that number supposed to be written on the outside of the envelope.

“For example, in that particular case 256 should have been written on it,” he continued. “And once you determined that the envelope is still sealed, there’s no reason to open the ballot. That person should have just opened the envelope, and turned those ballots into the box so they could be recounted with all the other ballots used during the course of that particular day.

“So for some reason it was determined necessary to open that bag and count those ballots.”

Regarding the Seabreeze ballots, FNM MP-elect for the area Lanisha Rolle previously told The Tribune that on the day of the election, voting at polling division number four was delayed for “about an hour” because ballots for Nassau Village were contained in the ballot book for Seabreeze.

Mrs Rolle said by the time officials discovered the issue, 13 persons had already voted.

“Apparently it was a packing issue,” Mr Albury explained yesterday. “The ballots are printed and then they’re packed into booklets of 25 ballots and it appears that in two booklets, there was a page in there, one page each for the Nassau Village constituency. In one instance, actually the first ballot book that was used that morning, when they got to page 13, the voter came back and noted that this particular ballot contained the names of candidates for a different constituency.

“And later on that day, like about 12.30, in polling station number seven, the same thing occurred. From our indications it appeared that this just happened in those two ballot books. There is no other report of a misplaced ballot being elsewhere in that particular constituency.”

Despite the hiccups in those two constituencies, however, Mr Albury praised his department’s handling of the general election process.

“The elections were dealt with professionally, everything was smooth, and everything was in place,” he said. “Generally speaking, like I said earlier, from New Providence, at 6am all of the ballots from the New Providence polling stations were on their way to the polling places. So everything was in place for the polls to open at 8am. It’s just that in Elizabeth they had that one issue that resulted in that one particular poll starting late.

“And to compensate for that the poll was extended after 6pm to allow for 10hrs consecutive voting as is required by law.”

Mr Albury said he is now focusing on preparing for the local government elections, which will be held throughout The Bahamas, except New Providence. A tentative date has been set for June 21, he said.