The Tribune

By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

WITH election season approaching, House Speaker Halson Moultrie said the Constituencies Commission is now faced with the challenge of deciding whether to recommend the reconfiguration of New Providence constituencies or suggest an increase in the number of seats to bring about “parity” in the voting process.

Mr Moultrie said the commission was now in the process of finalising its report, although it is “still a work in progress”. He also said the group recently received statistics from the Parliamentary Registration Department which showed that a number of the constituencies continued to increase in numbers “in terms of registered voters”.

“The Golden Isles constituency (has) more than 7,000 voters now and (is) approaching 8,000, while we have about four or five constituencies in New Providence that are still under 5,000,” he told reporters on Friday. “So that has been part of the challenge based on the constitutional mandate given to the commission to bring parity in the island where we can get parity and that is New Providence principally to Grand Bahama and Abaco.

“So, the challenge is whether we’re going to have to recommend that the constituencies be reconfigured in New Providence to bring about that parity, or whether there should be an increase in the number of seats. And of course, the commission can make the recommendations but at the end of the day, (if) the Prime Minister decides that he wants a different configuration, he can bring the report to Parliament, table it in Parliament and have a resolution by Parliament to agree with the final configuration so that is where we are at right now.”

When asked if it would be better for larger constituencies to be cut to form new constituencies instead of being reconfigured, he stated: “Well one or two things can happen. If you increase the number of seats for example, you can average out approximately 5,000 voters in New Providence...or you can reconfigure the constituency boundaries and try to maintain the same number of seats in New Providence, but the count would be slightly higher. But the key is the constitution requires that we should seek to get parity. In other words, your vote shouldn’t be heavier than another person’s vote.”

Mr Moultrie said the constitution “understands” that because The Bahamas is an archipelago, it is not possible to get the same number of voters in constituencies in the remote Family Islands as it is in New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco. He added that he did not believe the MICAL constituency was practical for “any representative” since there is no sea or air link between the five islands.

“Now you can come from New Providence into Acklins, Crooked Island and Long Cay, but to get to Mayaguana or Inagua you have to take a charter flight,” he explained.

“Likewise, with Inagua and Mayaguana you can fly in from Bahamasair or you can use the motor vessel...and you can go into Inagua and Mayaguana, but to get from Inagua to Mayaguana except on the days when Bahamasair is travelling is an expensive undertaking.”

Mr Moultrie said he recommends the country “returns to the previous configuration” where Inagua and Mayaguana had one seat and Acklins and Crooked Island and Long Cay had another.

“They were all connected and the reason for that is simple. For example, with the configuration that exists today, for the government to cause economic development in the MICAL constituency it has to find investments for five islands. Whereas, if the government — which is always usually making a political decision — wants to affect seats in terms of trying to retain the government, it is better to spend the money in New Providence because you will be affecting 24 seats.

“If you go into Grand Bahama, you will be affecting five seats, if you go into Abaco, two seats. You see and in MICAL you have to go into five islands for one seat. And you know over the years, we have always developed in the short-term, we’ve taken the short-term approach with no long-term planning. So, most decisions in The Bahamas regrettably are political decisions.”