The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune

WHEN one picked up The Tribune and The Nassau Guardian on March 30, you were greeted with front-page headlines, “Father of Four Denies Voter Fraud” and “Harbour Island Man Gets Bail in Voter Fraud Case”.

Looking closer at the photographs which accompanied the stories and watching the local news on television, the immediate question which anyone would have to ask is, “Is it really necessary to have five burly policemen accompany the individual to court and have his hands handcuffed behind his back and a chain on his ankles? What has this man been charged with?”

Someone charged with murder or some other serious crime doesn’t receive this kind of treatment!

Indeed, is it appropriate to have a police plane fly to North Eleuthera with armed policemen on board to apprehend the individual and escort him to Nassau?

The alleged fraud results from the fact that the name of the individual charged, Andrew Johnson, appears twice on the Register for Harbour Island. One does not, however, have to look very hard at the Register for Harbour Island to notice that the name of the Administrator for North Eleuthera, Jolton Johnson, also appears twice on the same Register: once as Jolton L Johnson and the other as Jolton Livingstone Johnson, who both share the same birth date. So why is it that Mr Andrew Johnson, a well-respected community leader, is charged with voter fraud, put in handcuffs and ankle chains, and dragged before the courts with a large police escort while the Administrator for North Eleuthera remains on the island attending to his official duties? Something is clearly wrong with this picture.

If, as a consequence of this incident, the Government or the Parliamentary Registration Department sought to use the incident as evidence that the Registration Department is well organised and diligently ensuring that persons were not abusing the system, the reverse has happened.

The Registration Department is left with egg all over its face; in fact, all over its body. The fact that you have charged a community leader and not the Island Administrator in what appears to be an identical situation forces one to question the integrity of the entire registration process and indeed the judicial system. It also leaves most fair-minded persons with anger that you are prepared to embarrass and abuse the small man, while the big man is let off scot-free.

It is, however, also understood that there are a number of other persons not only in North Eleuthera, but throughout the Bahamas, who appear on the Register twice and this fact raises very serious concerns as to whether the Parliamentary Registration Department is equipped to handle the registration and raises concerns as to possible abuse.

Everything would seem to point to the probability that mistakes were made in the Parliamentary Registration Department in issuing two voters cards in the same polling division to the same person; and if that is acknowledged, then charges should immediately be dropped against Mr Johnson and apologies made. But if the Parliamentary Registration office is unable to acknowledge their mistake, then clearly the Island Administrator should be charged before the courts with the same offence.

RICHARD

LIGHTBOURN, MP

Montagu Constituency

April 5, 2017