Wehner asks ABEC what price it would place on democratic, free and fair elections as he advocates for re-registration

Jonathan Wehner, the youngest member of the United Progressive Party (UPP)
Executive, is asking a very important question related to “the price of
democracy.”
 
Wehner was responding to the position of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral
Commission (ABEC) that a complete re-registration of voters would be much
more costly than a revalidation exercise.
 
Representatives from ABEC – Supervisor of Elections Ian Hughes and Public
Relations Officer Elisa Graham – made the media rounds this week to share
information about the exercise, expected to begin in July.
 
Hughes says it would cost the Government $9 million for a re-registration
exercise compared to $2 million for the revalidation process.
 
However, Wehner is not persuaded by the “cost” rationale being put forward
by ABEC. Rather, he says one of the important tenets of any democratic
society is its free and fair elections.

That was Jonathan Wehner, United Progressive Party Executive Member,
on Observer AM Friday morning.
 
The United Progressive is pushing for complete re-registration – for which
there is a precedent – and rejecting the Antigua Labour Party’s position,
which prefers revalidation of the expired cards.