Electoral officials and political experts have roundly rejected claims by Leader of the Opposition Ralph Thorne that the government is manipulating the voters’ list with foreign nationals, in what critics have described as a desperate and damaging attack on the country’s electoral integrity.
Electoral and Boundaries Commission Chairman Ramon Alleyne SC also said while Thorne’s claims may not be actionable in court, they nevertheless have cast aspersions on how the registering officers carry out their duties.
“[The registering officers] have done nothing wrong, other than do as have been required and as has been done throughout the years by all administrations,” he said.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley has already dismissed the allegations and urged Thorne to bring the evidence of voter padding.
At the same time, three leading political scientists are describing the claims as rubbish, nonsense and unsubstantiated.
Thorne, who is also the political leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), first made the claim during his reply to the Budget in Parliament and then at his press conference on Monday.
“We are asking Barbadians to be wary of padding the voters’ list. We are asking Barbadians to be wary of bringing labour here, foreign labour, and even students now we hear, are being registered as Barbadians,” he said.
“We are suspicious that all of these initiatives are being intended to make up ground for lost votes, and that when the election comes, the government may find itself padding the voters’ list with people who do not ordinarily live here.”
But investigations by the EBC have found no proof of this.
“No, the EBC has not found any evidence of voter padding,” chairman Alleyne told Barbados TODAY on Monday. “It is unfortunate that there is a suggestion that the hard-working EBC staff, registering officers out there, who are trying to update the voters’ list as required by statute, should have some suggestion put forward that they are doing their job in any other way than as is required by statute or that is required in terms of their standard methodology that has been followed throughout the years.”
Alleyne noted that the EBC has “members who serve at the pleasure of the opposition leader, and I speak for all members of the commission when I say that none of them would certainly facilitate anything such as padding of voters’ list”.
He pointed out that the review of the voters’ list is an ongoing exercise and that is why the registering officers are currently out in the field gathering data to see where people have moved, where they no longer reside in a particular constituency, and making sure the list is as honest and up to date as possible.
Regional pollster Peter Wickham labelled the DLP leader’s comments as rubbish, querying if Thorne “even knows what voter padding is”.
“I do agree with the [prime minister] that such an explosive allegation ought to be supported by evidence,” Wickham told Barbados TODAY on Monday. “Ralph should recall that any Commonwealth citizen who is resident here for more than six months is properly eligible to vote and this is something that he clearly supported when Saint
Lucia-born law professor Eddy Ventos sued the DLP government in 2018 to enforce the regulation.”
Wickham was adamant that Thorne was silent then, and he therefore assumed he considered this to be right and proper.
“[But] on this occasion,” the political scientist pointed out, “he appears to be referring to non-Commonwealth nationalities which have no right to vote here until they become citizens (if ever they do). It should therefore be easy for him to identify these people on the list and let us see for ourselves, how this abuse of the law is taking place. I await the publication of his list of offending names.”
UWI political scientist Dr George Brathwaite branded the opposition leader’s allegations as nonsensical.
“I didn’t think that he would come and say that. There isn’t any voter padding. Barbados elections…we have been held up in high esteem, not just by CARICOM and the OAS and so on. No man, what is he trying to do, damage the reputation of Barbados…?
The political expert argued that any such acts go against what Barbadians collectively stand for.
He said he might have agreed with the opposition leader if he claimed “money was being passed” during an election season because this has happened over the years on both sides of the political divide.
“But to come with that [voter padding] is not only trying to taint Mia Mottley, he’s tainting my country that I love. Nah, nah, it’s nonsense,” Dr Brathwaite contended.
Political scientist Dr Kristina Hinds said she has no evidence on the list, which is published regularly for the public to inspect, of any alarm with respect to voter padding.
“I don’t know that there is any basis on which to substantiate that claim. I would love to see the evidence. I don’t know where this information has come from. Our electoral list, it might be up for a cleanup. Each year the list is published so that people can check for those who have died and need to be removed from the list,” Dr Hinds told Barbados TODAY.
“There is a case to be made for a full census to make sure that we have an accurate list, but I don’t have any evidence to support a claim that the voters’ list is padded; and if there is such evidence, I would want to see it.”
While she, too, cited the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) decision that Commonwealth citizens have a right to vote in each other’s country once they satisfy the length of stay requirements, the political scientist said if Thorne had evidence of non-Commonwealth citizens on the list, “I would love to see it. But I don’t have anything that raises any alarm. That is the truth.”
The general election is constitutionally due in 2027.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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