by Linda Straker
Alex Phillip, Supervisor of Elections has confirmed that there is an influx of eligible voters seeking to get registered for the upcoming general election following the announcement from Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell on Sunday, that Monday, 29 January is the final day for registration.
Head of State Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenade is expected to issue the Writ to the Parliamentary Elections Office to cease all registration, and for the offices to prepare for the General Election which will be held on 13 March 2018.
“Some offices are busier that others, but we are seeing increased activities at most offices,” Phillip said. The offices opened at 9 am and close at 5 pm. However, Civic and Voter Education Officer Ferdinand Phillip said that once a person is in the line at 5pm that person will get registered.
“Our office will stop accepting persons at 5 pm and will attend to all those who are in line. So those who coming after that time will be very unfortunate,” he explained.
One of the busier offices is the Parliamentary Elections Office of St George’s North East. Supervisor of Election Phillip said that this constituency is facing a challenge that stems back to registration of persons for the 2013 General Election when Grenada adopted the electronic voter system.
“The St George’s North East constituency borders with 4 other constituencies and we have a situation where some persons in a particular community were registered in the wrong constituency. Based on constituency boundary lines, some should be in St David but instead are in St George’s North East. When we published the last consolidated list, claims and objections were filed and following our research some of these persons are indeed in the wrong constituency based on the boundary line,” he said.
“According to law, these persons will have changed to the correct constituency and because the date for final registration was announce on Sunday and the final date for registration is Monday, we have a number of these people coming to North East office,” he said.
However, the chairman of the National Democratic Congress has described the hive of activities at that office as abnormal and questionable. “Numerous people are presenting affidavit saying they live there, while this questionable,” he said while claiming that there are other questionable activities in other constituencies.