May 29th, 2017 -- I was off island for the period 2 – 12 May as a member of the 4 person team of the Commonwealth of Nations to observe the conduct of the elections of the Commonwealth of Bahamas on 10th May 2017. I have done so already, but I publically offer my humblest thanks to Baroness Scotland and the Commonwealth Secretariat for this opportunity.
The results of that elections is widely known. The incumbent went from a 28:10 parliamentary majority to a 4:35 minority, with the incumbent Prime Minister losing his seat. But the outcome is not and was not my or our mandate. Rather, it was to see whether the elections were conducted according to law, in a level playing field; and secondly whether international best practices were used. My third objective was to learn. It is some of those observations that I now wish to share.
In the Bahamas, once the Presiding Officer issues the ballot, it is only handled by the voter. It is the voter who inserts it in the ballot box. However, and this is important, the voter cannot receive the ballot unless he dips his right thumb, the entire first digit, in the ink. A poll worker, termed an “inker” is assigned to this task and actually was observed guiding the thumb into the ink bottle. Here, the voter is to return the ballot to the Presiding Officer.
The ballot has no boxes on it, just the name of the candidate, the political party and the symbol. There is a line separating each name. The ballot was almost the size of an A4 paper, and there was a counterfoil. The voter can make his mark (an X) anywhere on the ballot within lines for the candidate of his/her choice, on the name, the party, the symbol or the space. While the X is requested, I saw other marks used and the ballots were accepted. Signatures and other writing rendered the ballot rejected.
The ballots were in packets of 25 but were randomly numbered. The ballot boxes are like ours, grey, except that they are made of metal.
The Bahamas allows early voting, usually by application, for electoral workers, security forces, and persons who apply because of personal reasons. This voting took place on 3rd May, a week in advance. They who apply, if unable to vote early may still do so on regular polling day. Each voter is given a card, looking very similar to those health center cards that we used long ago. They were purple for this election.
(continued next week)
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