By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterTHE ELECTORAL Office of Jamaica (EOJ) is on target in its preparations for the upcoming General Elections in Antigua and Barbuda.
The EOJ, which in April secured a US$500,000 contract to assist in organising the twin islands' electoral system, has received commendation from the Electoral Commission of Antigua and Barbuda.
According to the Electoral Commission, more than 16,000 of the approximately 40,000 eligible voters making up the electorate have already been registered since the July 1 start of the process. Registration will be concluded on July 31.
The EOJ has transferred some of its technology and is collecting demographic data, fingerprints and photographs. It is also training Electoral Commission workers, collaborating with the Antiguan commission on public education programmes, and assisting in the setting up of 54 registration centres throughout the two islands.
"We are very pleased. If we had to reinvent the wheel, you can understand the astronomical cost it would have been to us," Electoral Commission spokes-man, Peter Gordon, told The Gleaner on Wednesday.
"There were other options, but we promptly decided to forego those," Mr. Gordon added, saying the decision was taken to offer the EOJ the contract after Electoral Commission representatives visited the island early last year.
According to Mr. Gordon, the previous voters' list contained about 54,000 names but was seriously flawed with several deceased persons included. The Electoral Commission is now seeking to provide the nation with a clean list in time for the elections, constitutionally due by March of 2004.
"There was speculation about going to the polls by October," he said. But, the Electoral Commission spokesman added, with the voters' identification cards expected to be completed in mid-October, neither the Antiguan Government nor the Opposition would likely "forego the education of the people for any advantage."
Earlier this month it was reported that Antiguan Prime Minister, Lester Bird, said he would rather call early elections by October, after coming under pressure to face a no-confidence vote. A protest organised by the main opposition United Prog-ressive Party, was launched on the heels of rumours of corruption and a sex scandal in which a girl charged that PM Bird and his brother had sex with her when she was 12 years old. A government-appointed commission found no wrongdoing.
