Electoral Office in new home

The members of staff of the electoral office now have a more comfortable environment in which to work.{{more}}

Their new office space, located in the former D’s Services building, on Bay Street, opposite The Cobblestone Inn, was toured by the media and other officials on Tuesday.

The office of the Supervisor of Elections previously operated out of two locations: in a section of the old government printery building on Egmont Street, as well as in rented space on Grenville Street.

Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb told the gathering that the new home made life a lot easier for those who worked at the office, when compared to the deplorable conditions at the previous locations.

“For the last four years, it was basically like we had two staffs and in as much as we tried to mesh, it was like there was something lacking and I think more than anything else, the fact that the entire staff is housed in one location has made a lot of difference,” Findlay-Scrubb said.

“This may seem to be just a physical matter in terms of the electoral office being housed in a more spacious and comfortable surroundings, but that means a lot for democracy in this country. It means a lot for free and fair elections, because if the persons who work in the system are not comfortable, then there is the risk that they may not deliver as well as they ought to,” she added.

The Supervisor said that now that the staff has been moved to a more comfortable location, the staff can now focus on the very pressing matter of revising the country’s voters’ list.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who was also present during the tour, said that the relocation of the office was part of his administration’s good governance initiative.

“Under the constitution, the Supervisor of Elections takes no instructions from anyone in respect of the conduct of her own work,” the Prime Minister noted.

“As the minister responsible for electoral affairs, I get involved in matters like ensuring that we have proper accommodation, good systems that respond to the Supervisor of Elections if there any requisites to the change in the laws, to improve the laws for the delivery of free and fair elections, and what we see here is part and parcel of our good governance efforts of our commitment to free and fair elections and to parliamentary democracy.”

The relocation of the electoral office, as well as the purchase of the building in which the offices are housed, cost EC $7 million, with the upper floor of the building earmarked to house the country’s immigration department.