EBC Chairman says election machinery being prepared for next poll

Election regulators are reviewing the manner in which the electoral process in Barbados is managed.

But while some political commentators suggest that general elections are in the air as a growing list of Government MPs decide to quit elective politics leading up to the next poll constitutionally due in 2023, Chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC), Leslie Haynes, Q.C., has sought to make it clear that the ‘improvements’ being worked on at this time, are merely coincidental to any perceived early voting.

“We at the Electoral and Boundaries Commission do not know whether the election is in the air. What we do is, after half of the five-year term is past, we start preparing for elections. That is our duty; so that any time elections are called, we are ready,” Haynes told Barbados TODAY.

“If the PM decides to call elections next year March, we should be ready. It’s part of our duty. You don’t wait until PM call elections to get ready,” the EBC chair added.

Turning his attention to the pending changes, Haynes revealed that the commission has identified a flaw in the Representation of the People Act which regulates election spending.

“The legislation provides that a candidate can spend $10 per constituent, but the legislation is kind of defective because it doesn’t tell you that the party cannot spend money or somebody else cannot spend money. So whereas the candidate is limited to $10 per constituent, the party itself can spend money in the constituencies,” the respected legal practitioner declared.

“These are things that we are looking at. But truth be told, with COVID since March 2020, that has put a spanner in the works of everything. So we are trying to simplify the returns by the candidates, but we haven’t been able to achieve too much in this COVID environment. We haven’t been able to achieve as much as we wanted to achieve, but we are working on it,” Haynes said.

The EBC chairman also addressed the provision in the Representation of the People Act which requires electoral authorities to prepare a Corrupt and Ilegal Practices List and make it available for inspection before the Register of Electors can be published.

According to Section 20 (1), every year the commission must prepare that list that contains the names and descriptions of the persons, who though they qualify to be registered as an elector, are nonetheless disqualified from voting or be on the electoral register, because they have been convicted or reported guilty of a corrupt or illegal practice.

A statement of the offence must also be included on the list.

The legislation also stipulates that the commission makes that list available for public inspection at least 14 days before the register of electors is published.

However, Haynes said the EBC does not have such a list.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb