Voter Re-registration Expected to Begin

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Monday, 18 February 2013 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St. John's - A steering committee has been put in place to streamline the highly-anticipated voter re-registration exercise due early this year.

Reports reaching Caribarena.com suggested that members are being drawn from the local government department and the Electoral Commission, among others.

The exercise will result in the creation of a new electronic voters’ registry and the issuance of new voter ID cards.

A proposal from the local government department suggested that an electronic registry system will be implemented with assistance from the Canadian Bank Note (CBN) Company. The new registry will contain a variety of data fields about each registered voter, including the standard photo and fingerprints.

The addition of street-numbered addresses to the existing data fields will be expected to work as a safeguard and provide exact information.

The new system is said to rely heavily on the success of the street naming and house numbering exercise.

If the electronic voter registry is populated in conjunction with the address database, the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission (ABEC) will – according to the proposal – be able to verify that the addresses provided by registrants correspond to those already mapped out.

This makes it crucial for the street naming and house numbering to be completed before the re-registration exercise.

“Linking voters to unique addresses will not only increase the transparency of the electoral process by allowing enhanced oversight of the registration process, this process will also exert a positive impact on the efficiency of electoral organization,” the proposal said. “The ability to map voters will provide detailed and reliable information that can be deployed by the electoral commission for the organisation of electoral processes.”

Reports have said ABEC will also be relying on the mapping of all registered electors to determine how best to distribute voting centers, polling stations, and local offices.

ALP spokesperson Steadroy “Cutie” Benjamin said the opposition has not been kept abreast with developments in the re-registration process, and had not received much information on the matter for quite some time.

The party’s leader, Gaston Browne, was not available for comment.

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