ALMOST THERE: Constituencies commission to complete recommendations on Monday

ALMOST THERE: Constituencies commission to complete recommendations on Monday
Speaker of the House of Assembly Halson Moultrie. (ROYSTON JONES JR)

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Constituencies Commissioner Chairman and Speaker of the House of Assembly Halson Moultrie said the commission hopes to complete its recommendations on the boundaries on Monday following a final meeting.

In an interview at the speaker’s office in the Senate Building, Moultrie acknowledged challenged constituencies such as Golden Isles, which had over 7,134 registered voters and remains the largest constituencies.

He said a number of constituencies have grown.

Five constituencies have fewer than 5,000 registered voters.

These include Bains and Grants Town with 4,815 registered voters; Englerston with 4888; Freetown with 4,841; and St Barnabas with 4,440.

“We have a circumstance where it appears that Golden Isles has some 2,000-plus more voters than five those constituencies and, you know, part of the mandate of the commission is to try and bring parity among voters in the constituencies that you are able to,” he said.

“And we are able to do that in New Providence and in Grand Bahama.

“Therein lies one of the challenges in terms of preparing the final report because we have to decide as a commission whether to recommend additional seats or whether to do a reconfiguration of the existing seats so we can bring about parity.”

The commission has eyed approximately 5,500 registered voters per constituency, with a range of 500 more or 500 fewer than that average.

As it relates to constituencies in the Family Islands, Moultrie pointed out there have been low numbers in constituencies such as Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador, with 1,700 voters, and MICAL, with fewer than 1,400 voters.

Five islands comprise the MICAL constituency.

“So, parity is not possible there, but the constitution has taken that into consideration, recognizing that we are an archipelago and that the majority of the population has migrated north [to] New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco — that is where the majority of our population resides,” Moultrie said.

“In Abaco, we are able to get 5,000.

“In Grand Bahama, we can get 5,000 easily. As a matter of fact, in Grand Bahama, if we stick with 5,000, we would really need to add one seat in Grand Bahama because Grand Bahama basically is nearing 6,000 voters per constituency.

“That is where we are at.”

The commission will meet at 8.30am Monday.

In April, the commission advised that it was considering as many as five additional constituencies on New Providence and Grand Bahama, though it was split on the matter.

At last report, there were more than 189,888 voters.

The Bahamas, with a population of approximately 400,000, has 39 seats in the House of Assembly.

About Royston Jones Jr.

Royston Jones Jr. is a senior digital reporter and occasional TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. Since joining Eyewitness News as a digital reporter in 2018, he has done both digital and broadcast reporting, notably providing the electoral analysis for Eyewitness News’ inaugural election night coverage, “Decision Now 2021”.