NNP fears rigging of 2013 elections

NNP fears rigging of 2013 elections

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Details: Parent Category: Oct 2011; Category: Week ending Oct 22nd, 2011; Hits: 539

Former Attorney-General and Minister of Foreign Affairs Minister, Elvin Nimrod is alleging that some Grenadians residing in foreign countries are being facilitated in order to allow them to vote in the country’s next general election.

During a news conference held last week Tuesday at the headquarters of the main opposition New National Party (NNP), Nimrod charged that being a Grenadian alone is not enough for anyone to be registered to vote in Grenada.

“To be honest and to be fair, you as the citizens of Grenada, would you really want someone or persons who (have) been living abroad for years to come back and decide which government should govern your country? It’s just basic and fundamentally not right!”, he said.

The Parliamentary Representative for Carriacou and Petite Martinique said that the registration of Grenadian citizens residing abroad and being allowed to register to vote in elections is contrary to the Representation of the People’s Act (1993) as amended (2006).

Nimrod said that without prejudice to Grenadians living abroad who make their contributions towards the development of the country, there is a law that must be adhered to.

“If you living outside Grenada, in a permanent sense, meaning you’re not resident in Grenada, you are not ordinarily resident in Grenada, you are not qualified to be registered to vote in Grenada”, he added.

During the NNP tenure in office, the then Keith Mitchell-led government was often accused of paying the passages of hundreds of Grenadians living especially in New York to return home to vote on election day.

According to Nimrod, the NNP had no difficulty with Grenadians living in any part of the world but felt that the law governing the conduct of elections must be adhered to.

“... “The point is there is a law saying that you cannot be eligible to register to vote merely because you are a Grenadian citizen. There are other conditions you must meet before you can do that”, he told reporters.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Gregory Bowen said the NNP has been getting a lot of reports of ad-hoc registration by Grenadians residing abroad taking place throughout the country.

Bowen said that in a recent meeting between the Opposition NNP and the Office of the Supervisor of Elections, the officers there indicated that they were acting on the advice of Attorney General, Rohan Phillip.

The senior NNP official also voiced his party’s concerns about the safeguards that the Parliamentary Elections Office had in place to prevent voters from registering in the wrong constituency.

Bowen said the NNP strongly believes that voters residing in a particular constituency can now visit any other constituency Parliamentary Election sub-office and attempt to register there.

“An unscrupulous political party or politician could use Grenadian citizens residing abroad to come to Grenada, visit a constituency sub-office and register there, padding the voters’ list in that constituency to their advantage,” he remarked.

He said the Office advised them that this particular problem can be handled through the objection process that is afforded to everyone after every quarterly list of eligible voters is printed.

The NNP officials also told the media that they had written to the Supervisor of Elections and copied it to the Attorney General’s Office drawing their attention to the incorrectness of their interpretation of the electoral law.

Bowen and Nimrod said that the NNP wants to ensure that the electoral process is free and fair and was in the process of sensitising the public as well as the relevant regional and international organisations about what is taking place in Grenada.

Allegations of rigging of elections in Grenada have often been made by opposition parties in the lead up to general elections over the years.