KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC:
SUPERVISOR OF Elections, Rodney Adams, says the December 7 general elections in St. Vincent and the Grenadines will be "free, fair, transparent, and free from fear".
Adams told the Caribbean Media Corporation that he was satisfied with the work being done to get the electoral machinery ready for the polls.
"I'm very happy about the (electoral) list. We cannot remove any name 'willy nilly.' We have to be sure that persons have been living overseas continuously for over five years, and persons are dead (to be removed from the list)."
Leader of the main opposition New Democratic Party, Arnhim Eustace, has been critical of the voters' list, saying it contained the names of more than 2,000 persons who were either dead or had been living overseas.
Eustace said that it was incredulous there were 91,000 registered voters, based on the 2001 census of 106,000 people in the entire nation.
Adams said that opposition officials have since been given the opportunity to thoroughly review the voters' list, along with voters' application forms and photographs.
He said opposition "scrutineers" have realised that many people with the same names were, clearly, different people; and that people's real names appeared with their photographs rather than with their aliases.
Regarding people believed to be dead, who still appear on the voters' list, Adams said their names could not be removed unless their death is well substantiated.
"We must have strong proof to vouch that this man or woman is dead to remove his or her name. The laws of St. Vincent and the Grenadines say we cannot remove a registered voter unless we have sound proof."
The Supervisor of Elections said some of the confusion would have been resolved much earlier if the Opposition had cooperated in the four-month enumeration process that began on March 15.
He said as a result of the exercise, 4,000 people, who were either dead or residing overseas, were removed from the list.
Adams said that the Opposition and some radio talk show hosts had been urging voters not to cooperate in the enumeration exercise.
"What the Opposition should have done when the enumeration exercise began is what they're doing now. They are trying to score points that the enumeration exercise was not successful. Had they encouraged Vincentians to cooperate, all this noise would not be encouraged."
However Adams said he is very satisfied with the current voters' list, stating: "We have rid it of all snafus".
"You can be assured that there will be a very clean and updated electoral list for General Elections 2005," he said, disclosing that the current list has 89,000 registered voters.
Adams said another voters' list would be published on Thursday, with the final list appearing just before the elections' date.
The Supervisor of Elections also said that a 15-day registration period for new voters would begin on Tuesday.
"The Electoral Office is doing all in can to have free, fair and transparent elections, and elections that are free from fear," he said.
