ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, September 6th, 2011  – The Elections Office is notifying the public of changes to the Elections Act following the passage of the Elections (Amendment) Act 2011, which was gazetted in the Virgin Islands Official Gazette on September 2, 2011.

The amendments were made to bring the Elections Act 1994 up to date and to reflect the appropriate terms used in the Virgin Islands Constitution Order, 2007.As part of the amendments to the Elections Act 1994, the Registrar-General after receiving written request from the Supervisor of Elections, must provide a list of persons age 18 or older who have died during the period to which the request relates.

The Elections Office will in turn update their records by deleting the names of those persons if they are listed on the voters’ registration list.

Another notable change is registered voters who relocate from one electoral district or polling division to another and wish to transfer their names to the district in which they have relocated must provide proof that they have relocated to a new local electoral district or polling division. According to the Supervisor of Elections, this proof can be in the form of a bill stating the voters’ name and the new address.

After the dissolution of the House of Assembly the new amendments stipulates that voter registration/transfers continues for two days and that the preliminary voters’ list should be published within four days.

Additionally, persons are now allowed to notify the Supervisor of Elections if their occupation is omitted or wrongly stated in the preliminary list, among other things. The amendments also allow the Supervisor of Elections the flexibility to carry out any corrections to the preliminary list that she considers necessary.

Another notable change is that polling day shall be held not less than five days after nomination day. Additionally, notice of nomination shall be published at least five clear days before the day fixed for nomination.

Amendments to the Elections Act of 1994 permits a voter who is incapacitated by reason of being an elderly person, (with the definition of an elderly person being seventy years or older), illiterate or any physical cause to be able to vote with the assistance of a friend, and the term friend also includes family and relatives.

Amendments to Section 46 (1) says, “In the event where a person who wishes to vote, “representing himself to be a particular voter applies for a ballot paper after another person has voted as such person, he shall be entitled to receive a ballot paper and to vote after he takes the oath of identity in Form No. 21 and otherwise proves his identity to the satisfaction of the presiding officer,” by producing two identification documents, one of which is to be issued by the Government.

Amendments to Section 51 (4) explains, “Where a polling station within a particular local electoral district is identified as the place to conduct the counting of votes, there shall be no transporting of ballot boxes from that polling station until all the ballots for that district have been counted and the provisions of section 52 have been fulfilled.” An additional amendment is that all local electoral and territorial votes will be counted in the district.

Persons are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the Elections (Amendment) Act 2011 to learn about the other amendments to the Elections Act 1994. The act can be purchased from the Passport Office for $10.00, while the Elections Act 1994 can be purchased for $24.00.

For additional information about General Elections, persons can contact the Elections Office by telephone at 468-4380 ext. 4377 through 4380, or in person at No. 6 Russell Hill Road in the Ulric Dawson Building, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

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