Voters’ list stands at 98,144 presently

As of this week, there are 98,144 persons registered to vote in general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.{{more}}

And, Supervisor of Elections, Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb, does not expect that number to be much different when elections actually take place.

The number comes from the second quarter voters’ list, which was released about two weeks ago by the office.

A previous list was published in April 2010.

Findlay-Scrubb indicated that the list was given to relevant authorities to be scrutinized, with all queries to be brought to the attention of the Electoral Office.

“We have given the list to all three political parties, all parliamentary representatives, and all the registering officers. So persons, if they need to, they could check any of these sources as well as the electoral office.”

“Apart from individuals, the only political party to have responded is the NDP (New Democratic Party). They submitted a number of queries, so over the next three months, we are going to investigate them… we are going to treat each one with the same level of seriousness.”

“The ones that are genuine and have to be removed will be removed, and those that have to remain will remain.”

According to Findlay-Scrubb, this process takes place every time a new list is released.

She said that the names of new voters, and those of persons who have died recently, are added to or removed from the list on a daily basis.

These additions and removals, she said, may not change the numbers by much, by the time elections are called some time within the next eight months.

Elections are constitutionally due by March 2011.

As far as elections are concerned, Findlay-Scrubb said that the Electoral Office is still in shape after the warm up which was the November 25, 2009, referendum.

She said that they will be ready for duties when elections are called.

“We have not allowed ourselves to lose momentum. We have not stopped doing what we are doing,” she said. “Even if we have elections that are called at short notice, we are on the ball.”

“We have been fortunate in that the staff that we had requested and have been granted to work for the referendum, we still have that complement of staff and we just kept on working.”

At the time of the referendum, there were 97,724 persons on the voters’ list. (JJ)