UPP will monitor transfers closely during voter re-registration exercise, Symister assures

With the Government’s announcement that a complete re-
registration of all eligible voters will take place, Leon Chaku
Symister, the United Progressive Party (UPP) spokesperson on legal
matters, says the Party will be paying keen attention to transfers
during this process.

The current voter identification cards are expected to expire in
March this year; however, a date has not been officially set for the
commencement of the re-registration exercise.

While the UPP stands firmly and fully behind a complete re-
registration, Symister says the Antigua Labour Party is well-known
for its practice of moving people into constituencies that it believes
its candidate may lose.

This, he notes, was done as recently as the last General Election on
January 18, 2023.

He explains that voters are moved into particular constituencies to
satisfy the legally required six-month residency period that will
qualify them to vote in those districts.

Then after the election, Symister adds, these persons will return to
the constituencies where they actually reside.

This is a practice to which the UPP will be paying keen attention as it
monitors the transfer process, he says.

Meanwhile, Symister – an attorney – is suggesting that there should
be penalties or – if they already exist – more serious penalties for
persons who fail to transfer out of a constituency after they have
moved.

Symister points out that a person’s name cannot be taken off the
Voters List unless it is successfully challenged; and the onus is on the
challenger to prove to the registration officer where the individual
actually lives.

He says this apparent ambiguity in the law will be something that a
UPP administration will seek to address.

The Gaston Browne Administration had first contemplated a
renewal of all the voter cards, and had complained that it lacked the
money to facilitate a complete re-registration.

However, Symister says he finds it interesting that, since the
government delegation returned from the People’s Republic of
China, the announcement of a re-registration has been made.

Leon Chaku Symister, the United Progressive Party spokesperson
on legal matters.