Thousands could lose chance to vote

The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) wrote Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Lavado Duncanson yesterday seeking clarity on COVID provisions that will be in place for the upcoming general election, and advising that special provisions should be made for certain individuals currently in quarantine to be able to vote, according to Valentine Grimes, one of the PLP’s election coordinators.

“One of the issues that we raised with him is that he needs to advise the general public and us and all interested parties what COVID provisions they are making, and unfortunately, we have not heard from them because we raised this before in our meetings, and so we thought at least the time has come to write to [the department],” Grimes said.

“One of the concerns we have is that a number of people who may be in quarantine will be disenfranchised, and so we suggested and recommended to him that he ought to make special provisions for these individuals.”

He said the PLP believes at the very least, those individuals in quarantine who are not COVID-positive should be permitted to vote.

Asked what should happen to those voters who actually are COVID-positive, Grimes said there may be a solution to address that, but he admitted he did not have the solution.

“But I do have a solution for those persons who are in quarantine because they may have had contact with persons who are COVID-positive. Provisions ought to be made for them,” Grimes said.

 The party believes no one should be disenfranchised by virtue of the fact that they are in quarantine, he noted.

“Previous generations have fought too hard for the right to vote, for every citizen to have the right to vote,” he said. “One man, one woman, one vote.

“And so, we thought that some consideration needs to be given as to how those persons in quarantine could be facilitated and that’s why we recommended to them that they ought to consider having one particular place for persons who are in quarantine, so that they can vote in whatever constituency they are in.”

When asked yesterday what will happen to the likely thousands of people who will be quarantined on election day, Duncanson said only that this will be governed by the Parliamentary Elections Act.

 Section 49(C) of the Parliamentary Elections Act provides that individuals who are registered to vote in a constituency may vote as a special voter in the advanced poll under certain circumstances, including “illness” or “infirmity”.

Such individuals by law are required to apply in writing to the parliamentary commissioner for a special voter certificate. However, it is still not clear whether individuals suffering from an infectious disease like COVID would qualify.

The advanced poll is set for September 9. 

Duncanson said 30,000 people are eligible to vote at that time.

Yesterday, the acting parliamentary commissioner also sought to assure that the election can and will be held safely.

“The one thing the Parliamentary Registration Department will continue to do is adhere to the health and safety protocols that have been established, which include the appropriate spacing some three to six feet apart as it relates to lines, the mandatory wearing of masks, the sanitization of hands, and there are ongoing discussions at this time with health officials all in an effort to ensure that we are able to clearly communicate to the public all of the health and safety measures that are continuously being discussed with the view of communicating such positions to the public,” he said during a virtual press conference.

Some critics have questioned why Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis decided to call a general election when the country’s COVID position is worse than it ever has been and when there were eight months left before an election was constitutionally due.

Minnis has only said the government needs a new mandate to make critical decisions needed to move The Bahamas beyond the pandemic experience.

 “A new mandate is needed to ensure that a government is in place to do this difficult work over the long term as we are reaching a critical turning point in the pandemic,” the prime minister said after Parliament was dissolved on Thursday.

Yesterday, an additional 159 COVID cases were reported (these are cases confirmed on August 22).

There was a test positivity rate of 36 percent. The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate of five percent to have an open economy.

The high positivity rate suggests a high rate of transmission and signals that there are many more COVID-positive individuals in society who have not yet been tested.

The newly confirmed cases pushed to 2,625 the number of COVID cases recorded so far in August, exceeding the number recorded in October, which had been the month with the most COVID cases ever recorded in The Bahamas.

As of Sunday, there were 3,357 active COVID cases, meaning that many individuals should be in quarantine, but that does not include the possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts of those COVID-positive individuals who also should be in quarantine.

The Bahamas has had 338 confirmed COVID deaths and 89 deaths of individuals who died with COVID but not because of it.

There are 47 additional suspected COVID deaths under investigation.

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