Voter registration expanding

Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Lavado Duncanson yesterday announced a national voter registration expansion as his office takes on the mammoth task of seeking to ensure an accurate voters register ahead of the next general election.

Duncanson said the exercise will be conducted in three phases.

The first phase is ongoing. Registration is taking place at the Parliamentary Registration Department (PRD) on Farrington Road, the PRD’s suboffice in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and at all Family Island administrator’s offices. 

Phase two will include a roll out of an additional seven registration centers across New Providence and an additional eight voter registration centers in Grand Bahama; registration will continue at Family Island administrator’s offices. 

Phase three will include pop-up registration in locations such as Gambier Village, Adelaide Village, and various work places, taking into consideration safety protocols, Duncanson said.

Evenings and Saturday exercises will take place in strategic locations such as schools, he added.

“Certainly, we will ensure that those locations are sanitized at the completion of the evening,” Duncanson said.

Expanded voter registration is scheduled to start on Monday at the PRD on Farrington Road and at the Grand Bahama sub office. Registration will take place Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

Additional centers on New Providence and Grand Bahama will be open for registration Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

They will also be open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. 

The additional New Providence centers as of Monday are the Main Post Office at Town Centre Mall, Grants Town Community Centre, South Beach Post Office, Elizabeth Estates Post Office, Carmichael Road Post Office, Cable Beach Post Office and the Parliamentary Voter Registration on Farrington Road.

Grand Bahama locations as of Monday are St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church Hall, West End; St. Stephen’s Anglican Church Hall, Bartlett’s Hill, Eight Mile Rock; St. Nicholas Anglican Church Hall, High Rock; Church of God of Prophecy, Hawksbill; Masonic Lodge Hall, East Atlantic Drive; Church of Christ Apostolic Church, Pioneer’s Way; New Canaan Baptist Church, Balao Road; and Grand Bahama suboffice, Explorer’s Way and East Mall. 

Duncanson said that come March, pop-up registration centers will be open Monday to Friday, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

On New Providence, these pop-up centers will include Adelaide Primary School, Gambier Primary School, Fox Hill Community Centre and various work places as safety protocols permit.

Seniors who need to register are urged to do so between 10 a.m. and noon. Duncanson said their registration will be fast-tracked, even if they are unable to come during those hours. 

“This expanded voter registration exercise is intended to provide as many safe opportunities as possible for the Bahamian population to come in and take advantage of the voter registration exercise,” he said. “We will continue to sensitize the Bahamian public by way of public announcements.”

Eligibility 

The passing of the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Act, 2020, meant that the legal requirements for a five-year register were repealed and a new permanent register came into force.

Duncanson noted that the permanent register will evolve over election cycles with the continuous addition of new voters, transfers, the removal of deceased voters and voters who cease to be qualified to remain on the register.

People registered for the 2017 general election who have not relocated to a different residence for a period of 90 days or more shall remain registered as a voter entitled to vote, unless their names have been removed by the parliamentary commissioner. 

Only qualified Bahamians who are not registered on the 2017 register or who have moved to an address different from the one on their purple voters card need to visit a Parliamentary Registration Department center to register or transfer their registration to a new polling division or constituency where they now reside, Duncanson pointed out.

Legal name changes will also be accommodated, he advised.

New registrants must provide proof of Bahamian citizenship.

The Bahamian passport is the primary document. An old voters card along with a valid birth certificate will also be accepted.

The department will also accept Bahamian citizenship certificates or registration of naturalization certificates with a birth certificate.

Anyone using a Bahamian birth certificate must present it with a government ID, the applicant’s mother’s Bahamian passport or voters card or the mother’s birth certificate and government ID.

Accuracy 

Currently, 186,763 people are registered to vote in The Bahamas, according to Duncanson, who said hand-written voters cards will be used again for the upcoming general election.

He was unable to say how many new voters were registered.

When asked about this, Duncanson replied, “What we did, as far as from the year 2017, we would’ve identified the numbers of individuals who would’ve registered up to this particular point. What we will do is we will get back to you with that exact figure. We have the figures, but we will get back to you with the exact figures between 2017 and today’s date.”

There were 181,000 registered voters in the 2017 election, with a voter turnout of around 88 percent.

Numerous issues plagued the register ahead of the last general election.

Duncanson said his department is taking steps to ensure an accurate register, including continuous editing of the register, continuous purging of the register once officials confirm deaths of registered voters, the daily addition of new voters and the daily processing of transferred voters.

Under law, the voting rights of incarcerated individuals are suspended.

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