The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

HOUSE Speaker Halson Moultrie said the Constituencies Commission estimates that each constituency in New Providence should have about 5,100 registrants for the next general election to ensure voter parity.

His comment during a House of Assembly sitting yesterday came while he requested that the Parliamentary Registration Department provide his commission with the latest voter registration data so it could complete its assessments and submit its report.

Speaker Moultrie revealed when the House resumed after the lunch break that he had been provided with the necessary data.

Before yesterday, the last time his commission received data was February 22, he said.

Speaker Moultrie noted that two constituencies in New Providence are approaching 7,000 voter registrants: Golden Isles and Killarney.

Thirteen constituencies have between 5,000 and 6,000 registrants, eight have between 4,000 and 4,900 registrants and one constituency, St Barnabas, has between 3,000 and 3,900 constituents.

“If we examine New Providence, the number of voters in New Providence, based on statistics provided, is 123,783,” he said.

“That’s an average of 5,158 voters.

“It is the constitutional duty of the commission to try to bring about parity among voters.

“It is, therefore, estimated that each consistency should range between 5,100 voters plus 500 or less 500 and that would be a reasonable parity.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that we must increase the number of seats.

“We can adjust the boundaries to bring about such parity or we can increase the number of seats to bring about such parity. A similar condition is in Grand Bahama where when we average out the number of voters of 29,515, the average is approximately 5,900 for Grand Bahama.

“As a consequence, we need the empirical data by Friday of this date so that we could conclude our hearing and report to this Parliament.”

While opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis has said he supports adjusting the boundaries of the Golden Isles and Killarney constituencies to ensure voter parity, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said during a community meeting last year that the boundaries are not changing.

“You’ve got what you got,” he said at the time.