The Tribune

ALLYSON Maynard-Gibson has accused former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of spreading untruths about her, saying in a statement that she had no connection to the late arrival of ballot boxes to the advanced poll last week.

Mrs Maynard-Gibson labelled this as a “final last push of desperation” on the part of Mr Ingraham.

“Mr Ingraham claimed that ballots arrived late to the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium at last week’s advanced poll because the attorney general provided legal opinion allowing additional names to be added to the register,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson noted in a statement.

“As a former prime minister, Mr Ingraham is well aware that this is impossible. The attorney general has no power to add names to the register. The only person who can add names to the register is the parliamentary commissioner. The law prohibits him from adding any name after the register has been certified. In accordance with the law, the register was certificated well before the advanced poll.

“The Bahamas is known for free and fair elections. The election officials are fair and impartial. The process is transparent. Registered voters are encouraged to exercise their right to vote,” she added.

On Tuesday, Mr Ingraham claimed yesterday that ballots arrived late to the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium at last week’s advanced poll because the day before, Mrs Maynard-Gibson allegedly advised the Parliamentary Registration Department that it could add additional people to the register.

Although the much derided advance poll was supposed to start at 8am, ballots did not reach the location until later and voting didn’t begin until after 9am.

Last week, the former Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall suggested that actions were taken with respect to the poll that helped cause last Wednesday’s chaos, actions with which, he said, he didn’t agree.

“The (Parliamentary Elections) Act does not mention anything about agents, election agents, voting at the advanced poll,” Mr Hall told ZNS News last week. “So I was compelled to accept the poll workers’ application form K as if they were election workers.”

When asked by ZNS who advised him to do this, Mr Hall said: “I would not reveal that ma’am. Of course there would have been consequences.”

He said he did not know what those consequences would have been.

“To err on the side of caution I decided to accept them.”

Mr Hall has also blamed Carl Smith, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security and senior returning officer for the poll, for the problems, citing him as the reason the voting sites were cut from two to one in New Providence.

Mr Hall’s three-year contract expired last Thursday.

He has since been replaced by Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Charles Albury, the former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Tourism.