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KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, April 22, IWN – Representatives of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) met with Supervisor of Elections, Silvia Findlay-Scrubb, on April 9 to discuss the voter’s list.

“And she ( herself asked for a meeting on the question of the voter’s list because we can’t have a voters list of 103,000 and it be real,” Opposition Leader and NDP president, Arnhim Eustace, said last week.

“It can’t be real to have a list with a population like ours. That is more like the whole population, including babies would vote,” he further said.

The latest census figures are yet to be released, but this country is believed to have a population of between 100,000 and 106,000.

The NDP had in January called for the voter’s list to be cleaned up.

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It said in a press release on Jan. 30 that while preparing for the 2010 general elections, it found on the voters list the name of almost 1,000 persons who are outside SVG for more than five years, who are not qualified to vote.

The NDP then restated its call for the voters list “to be analysed and cleaned up”.

Meanwhile, the ruling Unity Labour Party has also expressed concerns about the size of the voter’s list.

ULP general-secretary, Sen. Julian Francis, in February called on the NDP to join with the ULP in trying to rid the list of the names of persons who do not qualify to vote here.

“The Unity Labour Party intends to spend a fair amount of time addressing this matter at our level, the party level,” Francis said.

He said the party’s activities in cleaning up the list are separate from those of the government.

3 replies on “NDP officials, election chief discuss voter’s list”

  1. According to the ULP employed agency chief Peter Wickham [Caribbean Development Research Services, Inc. (CADRES) ], a Barbados-based consulting firm, who secretly runs their election campaigns, the ULP paid for and flew in 400 people from the Diaspora, fully well knowing they should not of been on the voters list. There are also 100’s perhaps thousands of dead people on the voters list, I believe the ULP are fully aware and have fought to keep the list intact, why one may ask? for what reason would a padded list be required?

    Are these dirty games being played by a dirty party with dirty politicians? ‘OWN THE VOTING LIST‘ ‘OWN THE FRAUDULENT VOTERS’

    I this all part of the ULP voter fraud by bribery.

    If Supervisor of Elections, Silvia Findlay-Scrubb refuses to change the voters list, issue a Writ of Mandamus. We cannot allow officials to sit on their hands in support of one party or another. I don’t know this lady but I am sure with the correct approach she will do the right thing.

    Here are some of the things that Peter Wickham allegedly told the US Ambassador in Barbados. The US Ambassador included those comments in a communiqué with Washington, which was then part of the Wikileaks saga.

    “Caribbean political campaigns are awash with money from a variety of sources, particularly wealthy expatriates seeking to influence governments”.

    “It has also led to special consideration and sweetheart deals for certain regional
    businesses; in some instances campaign contributors have been rewarded with diplomatic passports“.

    “A sudden injection of US$350,000 [EC$945,000] in the last two weeks of St. Vincent’s December 2005 election campaign allowed the ruling Unity Labour Party to sway voters in a handful of hard fought parliamentary races by helping people pay overdue bills, fix leaking roofs, and buy groceries“.

    “Shipping containers full of hats, T-shirts, posters and other campaign paraphernalia typically arrive from the U.S. as elections approach”

    “the ruling party flew about 400 people to St. Vincent from the U.S. for the recent election“.

    “Wickham is of the opinion that it was the aforementioned infusion of cash and flying in of voters that allowed the ruling party to win the three races his polling showed they could very well have lost“.

    “ ¶7. (C) Marijuana growers have considerable influence in St. Vincent, where they are not necessarily considered undesirables but can be quite prominent people, according to Wickham. He thinks there is some truth to the rumors that that certain individuals tied to the drug trade provided funding to Gonsalves’s ULP, at least during the 2001 election
    that brought it to power (ref C). In Wickham’s assessment, Gonsalves has to appear to be doing just enough to tackle marijuana production to satisfy the USG and CARICOM member states. “Vincentian ganja is a big thing” in the Caribbean, said Wickham, who believes that it is difficult for the Government of St. Vincent to crack down on one of the
    country’s few lucrative industries“

    For the full text see
    http://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/09/03/breaking-here-first-cbc-sacks-peter-wickham-over-secret-corruption-briefings-to-us-ambassador/
    .

    Please understand I am not accusing any individual of any wrong doing, that is the job of the police, magistracy and law courts to decide on. I am only presenting to you what I believe to be the truth, but I may well be unintentionally wrong.

    Everyone and anyone and any entity mentioned in this letter should be assumed innocent, unless proved otherwise in a court of law.

  2. Dear Kenton

    I have got dozens of comments outstanding for you mediation. I also have quite a few LETTER submissions undecided by you.

    Any chance of getting those up to date before you do whatever your doing with the site.

    By the way when you look at Caribbean News Now, they have got quite a lot of advertising revenue going for them. Why have you not got this sorted out, its time to earn some real money for yourself. I don’t mean to be rude just worry about the sites future, it means so much to many of those that use it, including myself.

    real regards

    Peter

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