The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

LESS THAN 50 per cent of persons registered to participate in the advance poll for the gaming referendum voted on Monday, Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall yesterday.

Mr Hall said of the 6,519 persons who registered only 42.8 per cent or 2,702 voted.

Of that number 444 voted in Grand Bahama, 2,237 voted in New Providence and 71 voted in the other Family Islands.

Overseas, Mr Hall said 66 persons registered and 41 voted.

He also denied claims that his office denied persons overseas the right to vote. However, he said, some of them changed their minds at the last minute.

“The young man in Atlanta who didn’t vote, he and his family lived in Tennessee and he decided it was too expense to travel to Atlanta to vote. The information sent to my team was that he was not sure if he would make the trip and so we decided it was not feasible to keep the embassy open for someone who may not show. He said it was expensive and he wasn’t sure, so we had to make a decision,” he said.

“We had another person in Ottawa who said the weather was bad and it was difficult to get tho the polls and another in Washington who said he had exams and would rather be studying. So we did not prevent anyone from voting.”

In an interview outside of Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Perry Christie said the government would find a way to accommodate those who were not able to vote, if there was some wrong doing on the part of the government.

“We try to give notice to everyone that you have to register,” he said. “I am surprised that anyone would have given them misinformation, it’s a matter. We will review the matters and see what steps we can take, but no one tried to surpass the vote.”

The referendum on gaming will take place on Monday, January 28. Mr Hall said his office is more than prepared to handle the crowd.

“We have done this before,” he said. “We know what we have to do and we will do it. We already sent the names of the persons that were approved by the minister to the ‘Vote Yes’ and the ‘Vote No’ people. So that means there will be one person present from the ‘Vote No’ campaign, one person from the ‘Vote Yes’ campaign and one independent person at each polling station. With all things being equal we expect that by about 9pm we will have the results.”

Mr Hall urged Bahamians to avoid confusion by only turning up to the polling stations where their name is listed, carry their voters cards or a passport for identification and behave in an orderly fashion.