by Linda Straker
- Writ issued Tuesday 18 September
- Final day for registration of voters is 28 September
Governor General Dame Cecile La Grenade has issued the writ that will provide for the Parliamentary Elections Office (PEO) to conduct the 6 November 2018 referendum in accordance with the Representation of the People legislation.
The writ was issued 4 days after the Senate approved the Caribbean Court of Justice bill. The bill had already received approval from the House of Representatives.
Alex Phillip, Supervisor of Elections said that because of the Governor General issuing the writ, the final day for registration of voters will be 28 September 2018.
“The law provides for registration of voters to close 9 days after the writ is issued, so it was issued on Tuesday, 18 September and therefore the closing date will be next week Friday,” he said.
Ferdinand Phillip, Civic Education Officer at the PEO said that as of 14 September there was a total of 78,889 registered voters. He said that once registration stops, an updated voters list would be published and there will be a 14 days period for persons to file claims and objections.
“We will then publish the updated list and it should contain the names of all persons registered as of the close of registration. Everyone who registered should examine the list to confirm they are properly registered. If anyone has any objection, there are 14 days from the date of publishing to draw it to the attention of the supervisor of elections,” he said.
“These complaints which are described as claims or objections must be done on the official forms that are provided from returning officers at the various sub-offices in the constituencies,” he explained.
The 6 November poll will be the second time that the CCJ Bill will be voted on a referendum. The first was in 2016 when 6 other bills were put forward, none of them received the two-thirds majority to get the approval of the people.
Grenadians voted against the CCJ by 9,492 in favour and 12,434 against.
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) settles disputes between Caribbean Community (Caricom) Member States and presently serves as the highest court of appeals on civil and criminal matters for the national courts of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana.
Currently, the highest Court of Appeal for Grenada is the London based Privy Council.
