by Linda Straker
Alex Phillip, Supervisor for Elections, says that more than 2000 names were added to the voters’ list since the November 2016 Referendum.
He believes that the education project was undertaken by the Parliamentary Elections Office (PEO) to educate students about the benefits of registering when they turn 18, is working.
“What we are seeing is that once young people turn 18 they are getting registered. The addendum has shown an increase in the consolidated voters’ list growing since we had the November referendum,” said Phillip as he pointed out that for the referendum there were 70,714 persons registered.
“For the addendum which is up for scrutiny as of today Friday, 7 April, the consolidated list now stands just a little beyond 72,000 and that is because of the amount of young people who have decided to register once they turn 18,” he said.
All registered persons will have until 18 April to file complaints about the list. The Supervisor said that all persons should scrutinise the list to ensure that they information is correct and if there is any problem, an official complaint needs to be filed with the returning officer of the constituency office. There are official complaint forms at the offices.
“Besides going through the list in the traditional format, persons can now go to our website and search the list to confirm that they are registered properly,” he said.
The law governing the general election process provides for ongoing registration of voters and mandates that a consolidated be publish every quarter. The list will be reflective of all persons registered up to 31 March 2017.
A general election is constitutionally due no later than mid-2018. Last week, Grenada’s House of Representatives gave approval for a new symbol for use in a general election. That symbol which is a ‘hand surrounding by a chain’ is scheduled to get the approval of the Upper House of Parliament or the Senate at its sitting next week Thursday.
The Parliamentary Office says that at present there are 30 registered symbols.
