Registered voters urged to update ID cards now

All registered voters who have not updated their registration since June 1, 2005 are being urged to do so at their earliest convenience.

The Supervisor of Elections, Sylvia Findlay-Scrubb said in a release issued Wednesday that the Voters’ List which will be used in the upcoming general elections will only include the names of persons whose voter registration information was updated after May 31, 2005.{{more}}

The release said representatives of the Government and the Parliamentary Opposition, in a meeting with the Supervisor of Elections and the Attorney General on Tuesday, decided that the Representation of the People Act would be amended to allow the Supervisor of Elections to address the issue of the size of the Voters’ List.

According to the release, the meeting was able to decide on an amendment with which both the Government and Parliamentary Opposition were comfortable. The two major tenets of the agreed amendment are that the Voters’ List would only include persons who have updated their voter registration between June 1, 2005 and the present time – this updating process must include the photographing of the voter. Secondly, that the Supervisor of Elections will publish for a period of 30 days after the Bill has been passed the voters whose names are to be removed from the Voters’ List. During this 30-day period, the voters so affected will have the opportunity to rectify their registration status.

It is estimated that approximately 20,000 names could be removed from the Voters’ List.

The Prime Minister is now expected, on the advice of the Supervisor of Elections, to make the necessary arrangements to have the amendment tabled in the House of Assembly for debate and passage.

“Consequently, all registered voters in the State of St Vincent and the Grenadines who did not update their registration since June 1, 2005 are urged to do so at their earliest convenience,” the release said.

Also present at the meeting were the Deputy Supervisor of Elections and the Legal Drafter, Ministry of Legal Affairs.