Parliamentary Commissioner: “We’re Still Dealing With The Same Amount of People, That Didn’t Change”

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – With two brand new seats added to the constituency list, it means one more thing added to the work of the Parliamentary Registration Department.

St. James will now encompass several polling divisions from Killarney, Golden Isles and Tall Pines, and that means voters already registered in those existing constituencies must return to update their information.

Parliamentary Commissioner Harrison Thompson explains why.

Harrison Thompson – Parliamentary Commissioner

“Because you have several more constituencies being impacted; you have Tall Pines, you have Killarney, you have Golden Isles, all those are impacted by what is happening there.”

The boundaries report was tabled in the House of Assembly Wednesday.

House Speaker Patricia Deveaux, Justice Gregory Hilton, and MP’s Chester Cooper, Dr. Michael Darville and Shanendon Cartwright sat on the commission that made these recommendations.

Harrison Thompson – Parliamentary Commissioner

“We’re still dealing with the same amount of people, the numbers of the people didn’t change; the constituency is changing, so I don’t think there’s any impact from that standpoint.

“We would have to make the adjustments in the register where polling divisions have been moved from one area to the next, and so that will create a bit more work for us, but my team is ready to get at it.”

“We would have public pronouncements, and invite you to come in so that we can correct your card; we would correct the counterfoil; we need to correct your card because we wouldn’t want come election day – lets say you’re in polling division 12 in Golden Isles now, and you’ve been transferred to polling division 10 in St James, we don’t want you go to Golden Isles on election day to vote, we would want you to come in so we can make the corrections, so that on election day you’d know you’re in St. James 10.”

Now that we are in the actual year of the election, the momentum has picked up with voter registration.

Harrison Thompson – Parliamentary Commissioner

“During the Christmas holidays there’s been an uptick; I think that people are buying into it, and they’re trying to get ready for the next election whenever its called.”