NAR: THA Report delay hurts voters

NAR Tobago Chairman, Christo Gift, said the Government’s delay in publicising the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Report on new boundaries in Tobago could prevent people voting in the upcoming Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections. The report changes the boundaries of ten of the 12 electoral districts in Tobago. A draft order containing the report was approved by the House of Representa-tives on Friday. Gift said the boundary changes would affect 18 or 19 percent of Tobago’s electorate. “Six thousand people are affected,” he told Sunday Newsday yesterday. Gift denied claims by Minister of Local Government, Rennie Dumas, that the delay was no problem. Rather, said Gift, the delay could constitute voter-suppression, as the minority NAR did not have the information garned by the ruling PNM from the report.

“He had it since August, but only brought it in October. Meanwhile, your people were using it on ground.” But it was not just the NAR who suffered from the delay but also inviduals. It was likely to suppress the total voter turnout. People would not know where their polling stations were located, said Gift, especially as the EBC had not yet  been granted enough time to publicise the changes to the electoral areas. He estimated some 6,000 Tobagonians would be moved from one district to another. Gift said the report did not adequately use natural boundaries like roads and village-affinities to define electoral districts. “The EBC just found polling divisions to make up numbers, but ignored geographical and community connections.” Because of this, the EBC would in fact require even more time to publicise the changes to dislocated voters.