As debate raged on yesterday from Barbadians over the controversial voters’ list, Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne threatened to take the matter to court.
However, Attorney General Dale Marshall disagreed with such action or halting the February 11 General Election, while former Senator Trisha Watson called for the voter registration period to be extended for a few more days to ensure people are given adequate time to have any errors rectified.
Thorne, who has consistently criticised Government and the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) over the electoral list and the many eligible names missing, told the DAILY NATION last night the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) was willing to put up a legal fight.
“The DLP stands ready and willing to go to court on behalf of any citizen who will be denied the right to vote. The entire exercise now feels like political ambush against the people of Barbados.”
Hurt many people
He added: “If this ambush was intended to disadvantage the DLP, it has hurt many people who have not been given adequate time to regularise the entry of their names on the voters’ list.”
The deadline for people to register was yesterday.
Thorne, a King’s Counsel and candidate for St John, said his party had consistently expressed concern over how the business of the EBC had been conducted.
“It seems that the Government has not been respecting the independence of the EBC in many ways, including the hiring of postmen to conduct the enumeration exercise, with the offer of incentive payments for hasty completion of the exercise. We continue to complain that the Government ought not to have called an election before the expiration of the statutory limit of January 31 for the full completion of the voters’ list.”
He once again contended that the EBC had not been meeting as often as it should be.
“We are deeply troubled that the EBC has not met since the announcement of the election date. The result of this undue haste has been to imperil the voting rights of many persons who are now at risk of deprivation of their right to vote.”
Marshall and Watson, a former DLP senator, clashed yesterday over how Barbados should respond to mounting concerns surrounding the voters’ list. He dismissed any prospect of court intervention while Watson called for a short extension of the voter registration period to protect citizens’ constitutional right to vote.
The exchange unfolded amid widespread complaints from Barbadians who said their names were missing from the list despite being previously registered, while others reported difficulties in completing the registration process.
Speaking on Starcom Network’s radio call-in programme Down To Brass Tacks, the Attorney General rejected calls from some quarters to halt the poll, insisting that the electoral process was governed by long-established law and practice.
“Today (yesterday) is the last day. Today ends at midnight tonight. Therefore, the idea that, just because an individual may not be on a list or in a particular constituency as at five to two today, that we should be talking about an injunction really is quite farcical,” he said.
Marshall argued that the courts would not intervene where individuals still had the legal capacity to resolve their registration issues within the prescribed time frame.
“A court will not grant an injunction where the claimant, the individual trying to get the injunction, has the power, has the legal capacity, to be able to fix that which he intends to complain about.”
He also pushed back against criticism of the EBC, saying preparation of the voters’ list was handled by professional staff and not dependent on how often the commission met.
Watson, an attorney and consumer advocate, said the circumstances warranted flexibility in order to prevent disenfranchisement.
“For the record, it is not impossible to delay elections, though it is highly improbable, and that is not what I’m calling for. I am calling for extension by a few days, to the end of January, to ensure that those who are not registered or have been de-registered, and who want to be registered, can be registered,” she told the DAILY NATION.
“That is the fair thing to do to protect the constitutional right of citizens to vote.”
Watson said her concerns were informed by the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters during the 2022 General Election, which was called two years before it was constitutionally due.
“This is not a secret and all right-thinking Barbadians still feel aggrieved by what happened back then,” she said.
She added that particular attention needed to be paid to newly eligible voters, including young Barbadians seeking to vote for the first time.
She submitted that concerns about cleaning up the voters’ list had been acknowledged for some time and should have been resolved before the election bell was rung.
“If you know that that process is still under way and that you have the normal registration process under way as well, including for a few thousand new voters, why would you call elections early and during that process?
“It certainly was within the power of the Prime Minister to not call an election because we have a full year before an election is due.”
Watson said it was inappropriate for the Attorney General to speculate on the outcome of proceedings before an independent judge.
“If any political party, organisation or individual Barbadian wants to go to the courts on this issue of the voters’ list, that is exactly what they should do. Then it would be a matter for a judge acting independently; it is not a matter for the judgment of the Attorney General.
“Being the Attorney General does not make him the authority on all things legal in this island. It only makes him the Government’s chief legal officer. The Attorney General is not lawyer to the people; he is merely a servant of the people.” (MB)
