The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

PARLIAMENTARY Commissioner Harrison Thompson said officials will conduct a postmortem into the 2026 general election after complaints that some voters were missing from the register, assigned to the wrong constituencies or forced to cast protest ballots.

“There were some challenges, and we're trying to correct them,” he said. “We'll do a postmortem, and then we see what happened. You know, some people had to vote on the protest ballot because their name did not appear on the register for whatever reason. We'll check and see what went wrong there.”

The review comes after an election season marked by sharp concern about the department’s preparation and management of the vote.

Election day was smoother than the advance poll, when overwhelmed polling rooms left voters waiting for hours in the hot sun, with elderly and disabled voters particularly vulnerable.

The Tribune canvassed polling stations across the country on election day, when many voters said they waited less than an hour to vote and, in some cases, only a few minutes.

However, the most persistent complaints involved voters whose names were not listed where they expected to vote, voters assigned to constituencies where they did not live and transfers that were not reflected on the register.

Asked whether ballot recounts had been completed, Mr Thompson said officials were still awaiting ballot boxes from the Family Islands, which were expected yesterday. He said the recounting process for New Providence was completed on Wednesday night.

Parliamentary Registration Department election consultant Geoffrey McPhee told The Tribune the unofficial voter turnout was 58 percent, describing it as “horrible.” He warned that turnout appeared to have fallen below the level recorded during the 2021 snap election held under COVID-19 conditions.

Mr Thompson said he was surprised turnout was that low, noting there had been significant public energy during the election season. He said he was unsure why many voters did not go to the polls.

He said he could not yet firmly confirm the 58 percent figure, but indications were pointing in that direction.