CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – LEADER of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament, the Hon. Mark Brantley said that some anomalies in the electoral system suggest a need for a realignment of the constituency boundaries.
Brantley told SKNVibes on Tuesday (May 19) that anomalies like the disparity between the numbers of voters registered in various constituencies “does suggest an urgent need of a re-alignment”.
Speculation has been rife of late that the boundary changes may be soon in coming although it is unlikely to affect Nevis.
A Boundaries Commission, consisting of Barrister-at-Law Anthony Johnson, the Hon. Cedric Liburd, Hon. Asim Martin, Hon. Vance Amory and the Hon. Michael Perkins, was set up to address the matter, but has not yet issued a statement. SKNVibes understands that the Commission is awaiting recommendations from its Technical Committee.
Brantley said the Commission has been in place since October 2008 and has had time in which one would have expected that their work would have been done.
“It is a matter of regret that the adjustments have not yet been made and that we do not yet have the recommendations from the Technical Committee.”
Amory, Leader of the Opposition on Nevis, also proposed that there are some kinks to be ironed out.
He said that there are a number of issues one has to take into consideration in terms of adjustment of the boundaries for the electoral process and what is contemplated, “and that is the general equalisation of the numbers within the boundaries”.
“One has to look at the size of the constituency and, in the case we are now looking at, you have to look at the number of persons registered and any imbalance which would have been created. It is clear that based on the number of registered voters on the list in Nevis Nine that there is some aberration which ought to be addressed.”
The former Premier said it is clear that the preponderance of registered voters in Nevis Nine, which consists of the parishes of St. Paul’s and St. John’s, has caused some concern and they have to find a way of dealing with it.
He also identified the St. George’s Parish as another area of concern which has historically been the largest in terms of population and registered voters. He said the number of persons now registered and are reregistering is very low. He revealed that at the end of April there were less than 1 200 persons on the register in what is Nevis Ten.
“I can only continue to appeal to the people in that area to register to vote, not necessarily for this particular exercise of realigning the boundaries but in terms of exercising their constitutional right to vote. I think a number of persons have not registered, a number of younger persons are not registering and, therefore, we may be seeing another kind of aberration in the alignment of boundaries.”
Amory admitted that he does not know what the new boundaries will be like in the Federation, but noted that it depends on when the Boundaries Commission meets, and that would not happen before the Technical Committee submits its report.
“For any meeting of the Boundaries Commission to be meaningful there must be a report from the Technical Committee,” Amory said.
“It is left to see what the Technical Committee will recommend and what discussions will come out of the Boundaries Commission to rectify the boundaries to ensure that we can get the best balance possible, given the present circumstances. How soon this can be done, I don’t know,” he added.
