Chairman of the Antigua & Barbuda Electoral Commission Juno Samuel fully supports moves by government to amend the Representation of the People Act, never mind that it will mean an abrupt and premature termination of his current tenure.
In an interview on Friday with The Daily OBSERVER, Samuel admitted that government did not consult him or any of the commission’s members before proceeding to Parliament with the amendments.
“I don’t even have a copy of it, so I don’t even know what it looks like,” he said. “I just know of it as you know of it, what is in the legislation. This is something that the government wanted to do and so it appears they proceeded with that. There’s nothing earth-shaking there as far as I can see.”
But that has not dented Samuel’s support for the controversial measures, which include taking away responsibility for registration and administration from the supervisor of elections.
“I don’t see any difficulty with it,” he said. “We know there had been difficulties over the whole question of the electoral process, stemming from the last election and the government seems to be setting out on a path to rectify that. They are necessary steps, and so I think they are quite in order.”
Samuel does not believe the amendments will erode the commission’s independence, pointing instead to the broader base of nominations that will accompany the planned increase in the number of members.
He said the most important thing is to have an electoral commission in which the public can have confidence.
“It is the body that upholds democracy and if the people no longer feel or believe that this body can work in (their) interest then something has to be done about it. If the government feels that this is something it needs to do in order to respond to whatever the problems are . . . if they responded to it in this way and they came up with legislation to remedy the situation, then so be it.”
But the views of at least two other electoral commission members are in direct contrast to those expressed by Chairman Juno Samuel.
Former chairman Sir Gerald Watt has vociferously denounced the amendments as foolish and a sly attempt to place the organisation under direct political control by the ruling party.
Yesterday, the opposition-nominated commissioner Anthonyson King left no doubt that he considers just about everything to be wrong with the proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act.
King regards the current parliamentary moves as an attack on the constitution itself, and an attempt to erode some of the most fundamental political rights guaranteed therein.
“I think the ruling party is tinkering with the electoral process to put themselves in a position where they can’t lose the election,” he said. “I think what they are trying to do is manipulate the system.”
King is of the view “that the government will eventually be in a position to control five of the (proposed seven) members of the commission”. He’s convinced that “Whoever the Christian Council puts there, they will put in concert with the government, and the same with the Chamber of Commerce.”
He said the problems with the commission had nothing to do with its composition, but with the unavailability of funding as required by the law for the organisation to control its own budget.
He then gave what he said is a current example.
“As we speak, the workers in this office do not have any water because the commission is not in a position to pay , so the workers have to buy their own water.”
Like Sir Gerald, King completely opposes plans to strip the elections supervisor of responsibility for registration and administration.
“In my view, that is unconstitutional. The Supervisor of Elections is a creature of the Constitution, and you cannot tinker with her position . . . All electoral matters must come under her.”
King believes the whole amendment thing is an attempt by the Baldwin Spencer administration to put its operatives “in certain key positions so that they can manipulate the system. They want to put people in here that they feel will carry out their wishes, and they will eventually be in a position where they can’t lose an election.”
But Anthonyson King is predicting that all of this “will backfire” on the UPP administration.
(Source http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=67537)
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