ABEC Stirs to Life



Details

Colin Sampson

Saturday, 30 March 2013 02:30

Colin Sampson

At last, a year in advance of general elections constitutionally due by March 2014, the Antigua & Barbuda Electoral Commission is showing visible signs of life. Chair of the commission Juno Samuel has broken his sphinx-like silence and announced the launch of the voter re-registration process in Antigua & Barbuda.

The entire project is expected to begin and be completed during the second quarter of this year, with the first list of re-registered electors due at the end of June, as mandated by the Representation of the People Act (as many times amended). In the meantime, and up until the re-registration period starts, new voters are free to continue to get on to the list of electors according to the normal procedures.

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Under ordinary circumstances the scenario just described would present no issues of particular consequence. Under the Representation of the People Act, as amended prior to the 2004 general elections, the original set of voter identification cards issued in 2003 are mandated to last for 10 years. In simple terms, voter ID cards have a life of 10 years from date of issuance: ABEC would have been required to replace the entire 2003 set in 2013, in any event.

Of course, nothing prevents ABEC from recalling all voter ID cards at any time, for example to replace outdated management systems with newer, more highly developed, hopefully cutting-edge, technology. This is all part of the march of progress, and in a sense is what ABEC is embarked upon at this time. Even at this stage, barely a year before general elections, none of this would raise eyebrows significantly – if the circumstances were normal.

At the time our brave new world of electoral reform was being debated in parliament prior to 2003, the 2013 horizon for replacing voter ID cards was just that: a date when a certain set of administrative actions relating to the scheduled replacement of obsolete equipment would take place – nothing more. Even if ABEC had chosen that moment to recall and replace all existing cards with new technology, that action would most likely have been applauded as a wise management decision – no problem there.

There are, however, a couple of Jokers in every pack of cards … and quite a few of that particular species of animal are right now slinking through the undergrowth, awaiting their best moment to pounce – and wreak havoc with the process.

One of those lurking perils is the voter re-registration project itself. When the various pre-2004 amendments were being debated and arrangements were being made to give voter ID cards a 10-year life-span, the replacement of cards was viewed as part of an ongoing management process. A total re-registration of all electors was not part of the scenario. That little wrinkle was added after the 2009 general elections when the United Progressive Party faithful decided to place a major portion of the blame for their near-defeat on perfidy by non-nationals, who they felt had deserted them in droves and gone back to the Antigua Labour Party.

Consequent upon the perceived betrayal by non-nationals of Commonwealth origin, the chagrined ruling party proceeded to make some amendments of its own to the much-tweaked Representation of the People Act.

Prominent among these were measures to purge the register of electors of Commonwealth citizens who had not resided legally in the country for the seven years required to acquire citizenship. Spin doctors for the UPP are quite open and vocal about their expectations for a more UPP-friendly register of elections in the aftermath of the re-registration exercise.

Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition naturally has no intention of taking a shafting lying down, or in any position – especially since the non-national vote has long been a reliable support constituency for the ALP. True, the indications are that the non-national voters did desert the sinking Lester Bird ship in 2004, boosting a new party into power – but if the chagrined UPP now feels itself betrayed by those same voters, the opposition party is not prepared to meekly allow a vengeful UPP to deprive it of a significant source of support in 2014.

The calm before the storm will end when the first results of the re-registration process reveal that non-national electors are being systematically removed from the voters list. Already complaints have been raised that re-interpretations of the Immigration Act and Regulations are throwing the legal residence of many CARICOM nationals into question. It is therefore reasonable to expect that the opposition party will seize the right moment to rush the process into court, hoping to stop the re-registration dead in its tracks.



If and when an opposition challenge to the re-registration process makes it to court, it may run full tilt into another lurking beast: the ALP challenge to the Report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission. Arguments are scheduled to begin in the High Court of Justice on April 11 to determine whether addressable legal issues exist, and if so what remedies the court can pursue. Depending on the outcome of the court hearings, a process may begin that has the potential to consign the redrawing of constituency boundaries to the dustbin of history – at least for the foreseeable future.

This may well prove in the end to be the happiest outcome, as it would maintain the electoral status quo, simplifying the re-registration process. It would also give the impatient voters of Antigua & Barbuda – from wherever they may originate – what they really want: the opportunity to see the ruling UPP and the resurgent ALP go up against one another on the known and familiar playing field.

The ruling party must surely appreciate, even through the thick fog created by its members’ pathological self-interest, that the average voter instinctively sees the headlong drive by the United Progressive Party government to re-jigger the electoral boundaries to its own specifications as repugnant. If it does not grasp this subtle aspect of the developing political situation, the neurotic ruling party may find that the re-registration of electors contributes mightily to its defeat in March 2014.

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