Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT and the Opposition are at odds on the issue of the right to vote under the amendment to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Bill, currently being reviewed by a Joint Select Committee of Parliament.
Yesterday's committee meeting departed from the consensus approach of the previous sitting.
This after Opposition Member Mike Henry raised the point that many Jamaicans were currently being disenfranchised on the right to vote because of new requirements being introduced by the Electoral Office of Jamaica for its voter re-verification exercise.
"There is nothing that I am going to say ... especially with 700 squatter communities across Jamaica...that you are going to deny me the right even if I wish to live on the streets," he said.
Opposition committee members Abe Dabdoub and Senator Dorothy Lightbourne insisted the issues were related.
Mr. Dabdoub maintained that the wording of the section on the right to vote allows for a law to be put in place that restricts the right to be registered based on residence.
He said that, currently, persons who are homeless are being denied the right to be registered on that basis.
A RESOLUTION
He then brought a resolution to amend that section of the Bill.
But Government Senator Trevor Munroe said that, if such restrictions were taking place, persons should take the matter up in the courts.
The two sides were unable to reach consensus on the matter. The Opposition Members, who were greater in numbers, insisted on a vote on the matter.
Justice Minister Senator A.J. Nicholson requested that the matter be deferred until next week but was refused.
A vote was then called; five Government members opposed the resolution and six Opposition members voted in favour.
But Senator Nicholson was critical of the Opposition.
"We have been struggling with this for a very long time and, you know, I had hoped that nothing that we have decided on already, would have been resurrected for us to have this kind of thing (disagreement) that we have had today," he said.
Senator Nicholson said that, despite the divided vote, he would be writing to the Consultative Committee to get its views on the matter.
The legislation is aimed at protecting rights and freedoms of citizens, including life, liberty and the security of the person; freedom of thought, conscience, belief and observance of religious and political doctrines, freedom of expression, among others.
