Elections Chief: No rigged elections

Rodney Adams, Supervisor of Elections has claimed that Vincentians can rest assured the General Elections will not be rigged.

“This supervisor of elections is not going to rig elections. It will be free and fair,” said Adams at a press conference on Wednesday, adding that he will not perjure his soul.{{more}}

“Not this Rodney Adams,” said Adams.

Adams stated fears by the Opposition New Democratic Party that the elections will not be fair are groundless.

Briefing the nation from the Service Commissions Department Conference room on the nation wide house to house electoral enumeration process that ended on Tuesday, Adams said the Opposition was asked to name scrutineers to work along with enumerators to maintain fairness and transparency in collecting the data for updating the electoral list.

“What they chose to do was to tell the people not to co-operate,” he emphasized.

Adams said approximately four constituencies were major stumbling blocks in the enumeration process during the three-month process, which started on March 14.

“Those were the ones who were vicious. They cursed the enumerators. They let their dogs loose behind them. They refused to open their gates when they knocked or called

“It is a fact. I have enough proof from the workers who reported to me what transpired in the various constituencies where they worked,” Adams stated.

Adams said the reasons for the enumeration were: To delete the names of persons who had died, to expunge from the list, the names of the persons who were absent from St.Vincent for over five years, to ascertain the exact number of electors in St.Vincent and to transfer persons who had changed constituency or changed their polling division.

He disclosed that the voters list at that time showed there were 91, 139 electors in SVG and with a population of just over 106, 000 it meant there were just about 15, 000 who were below the age of 18, or 0 to 17 plus years old. Adams said he is sure the school population has surpassed that figure.

Adams said to carry out the enumeration process 130 enumerators were appointed, 16 supervisors and 260 scrutineers.

He said their duty was to strictly update the voters’ list and to bring it closer to reality in relation to the population at the moment.

Adams said since the enumeration process started corrections have been made as the data comes to hand.

The supervisor noted that there were over 2373 deletions from the lists and there were 182 persons who are dead and whose names were still recorded on the list. Adams said transfers have been made for 1142 persons who have changed constituencies or their polling divisions.

He said the electoral list now reads that there are some 89, 000 voters in St.Vincent.

Adams said when the other materials are processed he is sure the electors list will be trimmed down to a reasonable size.

He said the records on the computer show there are 68426 persons with national identification cards and just over 21, 000 persons without. He said investigations are carried out into the latter figure.