By Candia Dames ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com:
The February 16 Elizabeth by-election and the process leading to it is the first major test for the Parliamentary Registration Department since the justices of the Election Court said in a ruling that the Pinewood case had exposed "the most egregious failures in the parliamentary system."
That ruling was handed down nearly two years ago to this day by Senior Justice Anita Allen and now Senior Justice Jon Isaacs.
At the time of the controversial Pinewood matter, the judges said, "The parliamentary commissioner failed, for whatever reason, to ensure the integrity of the registration process in Pinewood."
While Parliamentary Commissioner Errol Bethel will not comment directly on what the Election Court justices had to say two years ago, he assured yesterday that he and his team are committed to ensuring the integrity of the system.
Bethel said it is important for Bahamians to understand who can vote in the upcoming election.
"I think the public needs to understand fully who the people are who have the right to vote in that particular constituency and people who have the right to vote there are people who live there and have been living there for a minimum of three months and are in fact registered in that constituency," he pointed out.
"People who registered there in the last election and who moved since that time and who have been out of the constituency for more than six months cannot come back to vote. So one of the things we want to ensure is the public gets the message about who the people are who can vote because the public can assist us, because if people have moved, people around them know that they have moved and so they should not present themselves to vote in this particular election."
Bethel said he is hoping that people "can just be honest in this exercise."
"Charges can be brought against you and of course there are penalties if you are convicted, and so we want the public to understand that. And the other thing is if you do present yourself and you are challenged by any of the agents or by the parliamentary commissioner — I can challenge people also — you would have to swear an oath saying in fact that you do live in that constituency and that your are legally entitled to vote there."
The parliamentary commissioner said his staff will be properly trained to address any issue that may raise.
In their 2008 ruling, Allen and Isaacs said it was startling that Senator Allyson Maynard-Gibson (the petitioner) and Pinewood MP Byran Woodside were forced to concede that 85 of 183 votes challenged were unlawful votes.
"This case also revealed that far too many Bahamians are willing to take an oath without regard to truth and their promises before Almighty God. This court will be considering whether any person ought to be referred to the police authorities for appropriate action," the ruling said.
The justices said one particular case that illustrates how the system of registration can be abused and corrupted is that of a Jamaican national who – according to the evidence – registered to vote in The Bahamas.
The court heard that he bribed an official to do so.
"Perhaps the time is appropriate for the parliamentary commissioner to comprehensively examine the practices and procedures of the Parliamentary Registration Department with a view to ensuring that what we saw in Pinewood does no re-occur because it threatens to undermine the fundamental basis of our parliamentary democracy," the ruling said.
Saturday January 23, 2010
