Final voters list – 101,052 eligible to vote next week

Ten thousand more persons have been added to the list of persons eligible to vote in the general elections on December 13.{{more}}

Yesterday December 6, the Electoral Office informed SEARCHLIGHT that there are 101,052 persons on the final list of voters, 10,019 more than the 91,033 persons who were registered for the December 7, 2005 elections.

The new figures show that all 15 constituencies have grown over the five year period, with the constituency of East St. George recording an increase of 1,062 voters, in comparison to the 7,600 registered voters in 2005, and the Northern Grenadines increasing by 242 to a total of 4,161 registered voters.

The number of registered voters in the other thirteen constituencies show that Central Kingstown has 7,836 voters, Central Leeward 6,614, East Kingstown 7,846, Marriaqua 7,163, North Central Windward 6,262, North Leeward 6,080, North Windward 6,526, South Central Windward 6,797, South Leeward 8,066, South Windward 6,696, Southern Grenadines 2,947 West Kingstown 7,549 and West St. George 7,849.

According to an official at the electoral office, copies of the final voters list will be sent to the political parties, returning officers, registering officers and election clerks as soon as possible for scrutiny.

Leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Arnhim Eustace last weekend dismissed a voters’ list of 100,000 voters as ‘rubbish’, and said that the list more than likely includes persons who are currently overseas.

“You can’t have a population according to your census of 106,000 and then you tell the public that they giving away $200 to each school child and have 30,000 school children and then you have a voters list of 100,000.

“A lot of diaspora have been away for more than five years and never came back and a lot of them should be off the list.”

“There are thousands of dead people on the list up to now, despite efforts to have them removed.” Eustace added

“I am not satisfied, but we will take steps and have taken steps; they will become more obvious as the days go on.”

He also said that steps will be taken by his party to address what he believes to be illegal registration of voters, when the final list is released.(JJ)