Pollster Advises Against Gerrymandering

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Politics

Friday, 08 June 2012 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St John's - Head of the locally-based Caribbean Subregional Research Organisation (CASURO) Linley Winter has been speaking out against reported attempts by the Boundaries Commission to carry out drastic changes to the constituency electoral boundaries in an attempt to give the government an unfair advantage, a practice known internationally as gerrymandering.

In a radio broadcast, Winter said it is in no one’s interest to have the boundaries to constituencies changed to give one political party an advantage over the other.

“The question then arises, are there any necessary reasons for there to be changes to the electoral boundaries? From my point of view the answer there is yes,” he pointed out.

Winter, whose research organization first gained national prominence with its predictions prior to the 2004 general elections, believes that based on what has come out from the Commission, the emphasis there appears to be misplaced.

“Where we should be focusing our attention now and hopefully influencing the outcome of the exercise, is that we have constituencies in which the average number is roughly within a particular limit,” he suggested.

The pollster is recommending that a serious attempt be made to equalize the number of residents within a given constituency that there should not be any variation outside of a given limit.

“We could set the limit at say 18 per cent, meaning that the numbers in any constituency should not vary further than that percentage from the others,” he explained.

Winter is strongly against what he termed “butchering” of constituency boundaries, stating that he favours maintaining communities as much as possible.

“You want to maintain, as much as possible, the integrity of communities. So you are going to seek, as far as practical, communities intact.

What this does as well it works towards equalizing or balancing the process, brings equity in terms of the average number of voters we have across the board. What that does it that it makes it fairer for every participant to be properly represented in parliament,” he noted.

He feels, for example, that because of the numbers, Barbuda is the easiest constituency to represent, while St John’s Rural West, with over 5,000 voters, is the most difficult because of the sheer numbers involved.

Winter is calling on the public to get involved in the process and to make demands for reform rather than mere changes to the boundaries. “Reform suggests that you make a change for the better,” he added.

The ALP’s lone representative on the Commission, James “Jimmy” Fuller, has made a public statement detailing widespread changes being devised by the body that tend to favour the ruling party.

His revelation has brought angry reactions from the opposition Antigua Labour Party, which has even threatened legal action to stop the commission and the ruling party in their tracks.

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