NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Minister of National Security Marvin Dames yesterday asserted that the next general election will be the “cleanest in our nation’s history”, insisting the Minnis administration, which has overseen the implementation of a permanent register, takes the integrity of the electoral process “very seriously”.
Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis has insisted the next general election is not due until May 2022.
He has the sole discretion to call the election on a date of his choosing within his five-year term, which began in 2017.
In an interview outside the Churchill Building, Dames said the exercise will be the most scrutinized to date, and assured that the Parliamentary Registration Department was working diligently.
Dames, who has ministerial responsibility for elections in The Bahamas, was also asked whether there was still a rush of people seeking to register as a result of the Court of Appeal’s recent upholding of a historic citizenship ruling, though the attorney general has insisted the law has not changed.
He said: “We want to ensure that only those persons who are eligible to vote, vote, and so, the parliamentary commissioner and his team — as I have been getting the regular updates — are taking all of the necessary measures to ensure that this, whenever the election is called, will be the cleanest election in our nation’s history and we take that very seriously.”
Last week, Attorney General Carl Bethel said the ruling that children born out of wedlock to Bahamian men and foreign women in The Bahamas are entitled to citizenship from birth led to a rush of individuals seeking to be added to the voters’ register.
The government appealed the decision to the Privy Council.
As of the end of May, there were over 190,000 names on the voters’ register — 131,926 on New Providence, 30,389 on Grand Bahama and 28,166 on the Family Islands.
There were 181,000 registered voters in the 2017 general election, with voter turnout at around 88 percent.
The government passed the Parliamentary Election (Amendment) Bill, 2020, in December, which made the voters’ register from the last general election a continuous or permanent register.
According to officials, the Parliamentary Registration Department has been engaged in cleaning up the permanent register by removing those who have died since the last general election and amending registration for voters who have transferred to other constituencies.
The minister has assured that the public will be informed in advance via public service announcements of the constituencies where scrutineers from the department will be conducting their work.
He said all personnel will be uniformed and visible identification badges.
