Moultrie: Add four constituencies or redraw the boundaries
PM mum on boundaries report submission
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — While a report submitted by Constituencies Commission Chairman Halson Moultrie concluded that the majority of commission members recommended no change to the boundaries, dissenting opinions from Moultrie recommended 43 constituencies.
On Friday, Eyewitness News revealed that the house speaker had presented the governor general with the long-awaited boundaries report.
However, the remaining four commissioners revealed that night that the report was submitted with a single signature — indicating that they intend to write to the governor general to reject it.
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis opted not to comment on the matter yesterday.
In the submitted report, obtained by Eyewitness News, Moultrie’s dissenting opinion recommended that a quota of 5,000 voters per constituency plus or minus five percent be established for New Providence and Grand Bahama — with the number of seats increasing to 26 in the capital and six in the second city.
He also recommended that the constituency of MICAL be split into the constituency of Inagua and Mayaguana and the constituency of Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Cay, for practical and geographical reasons.
He further estimated that the consideration would require a budget increase of $112,000 and pointed to the 1992 election when there were 49 seats with a voting population of 122,952.
As of July 6, 2021, the voters’ register stood at 191, 217 voters, according to data from the Parliamentary Registration Department.
Moultrie noted that there was a large disparity in the number of registered voters, with five constituencies below 5,000 voters and three above 6,000 voters.
As an alternative opinion, the speaker noted in the report that the existing 39 seats could be maintained by reconfiguring the constituency boundaries on New Providence to achieve greater parity.
He suggested that with the number of voters registered at the time of the report, there would need to be a redrawing of 11 of the 24 constituencies.
The report also included a purported opinion of Exumas and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper with a note “not received at time of printing”.
“Mr Cooper had raised two concerns during our deliberations, (1) the purity and accuracy of the permanent voters’ register with respect to the purging of deceased persons; and (2) the number of missing persons not yet presumed dead as a resume of the impact of Hurricane Dorian on the five constituencies in Grand Bahama and two constituencies in Great Abaco,” the report read.
The report noted that the commission held 10 business meetings during the course of its work and held no public consultations or meetings.
It indicated that data provided by the Parliamentary Registration Department informed discussion on whether 39 seats would adequately provide effective representation in the future, particularly in remote southern parts of the archipelago.
It also pointed to the concerns of the impact of Hurricane Dorian on constituencies on Great Abaco and Grand Bahama.
The commission’s report recognized that at this time, any research and analysis into the demographic impact of COVID-19 would be premature, noting that the net Family Island migration would not significantly affect the size of the constituencies.
“We debated the option of redistribution of the electoral boundaries in New Providence, Grand Bahama and MICAL constituency, but it was the will of the majority of members to recommend no change to the 39 constituencies,” the report concluded.
Several observations and recommendations were also outlined in the submitted report, including the establishment of a statutory Independent Constituencies Commission with adequate staffing; the need for public consultations and public sittings of the commission; and the establishment of a website and other social media platforms.
It also recommended that larger islands of the southeast Bahamas be classified as “exceptional constituencies”.
In an interview with Eyewitness News yesterday, Moultrie insisted that “every consideration and recommendation by the majority of the committee was fully ventilated in the report submitted to the government general”.
He underscored that the issue was mainly whether or not dissenting opinions should be included in the report, claiming Cooper also wanted to register certain concerns he had.
The house speaker also suggested that it’s not usual that his signature is the only signature on an official document.
“There was nothing irregular about the speaker signing the report of the commission,” he said.
“Did the speaker sign a report that did not reflect the wishes of the majority? In my estimation, that should be the only issue.”
He further accused commission members of “trying to silence the voice of the chairman and silence the voice of Exumas and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper by not agreeing to have any dissenting opinions included in the report”.
