Latest Disappointments in Electoral
Reform – Letter to the Editor of The Anguillian Newspaper
Dear
Mr Editor,
Your readers will be aware that government has now published on
its website a Bill for an Elections Act, 2019 (the 2019 Bill). http://www.gov.ai/documents/Elections%20Act%202019%20-%20BILL%20Final%20for%20consultation.pdf. I have to register my
disappointment at this attempt by government to sneak this 2019 Bill into
law. I invite everyone to have a look at
the table of contents at the beginning of the document if you do not have the
time to read the entire 2019 Bill.
This is supposed to be
Government’s effort to bring into effect the election-related recommendations
of the 2017 Report of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee
(the 2017 Report). But, the 2019 Bill
omits two of the most sincerely desired and widely welcomed reforms to our
elections procedure recommended by the 2017 Report. These were: (1) the revision of the Voters’
List by holding a new enumeration, and repeating it every ten years; and (2)
introducing into our elections procedure for the first time provisions for
campaign financing regulation. We can’t
revise the Voters’ List and clean it up unless the law provides for enumeration
to be held periodically. We can’t
prevent vote-buying unless the law obliges politicians to publish their
accounts. Under the recommendations of
the 2017 Report, all politicians and political parties were going to be
required under heavy penalties to publish their audited financial statements in
a timely fashion.
I say “sneak into law” because of the applicability of Mr Hubert Hughes’
well known aphorism. He said, “If you
want to keep something secret from Anguillians, most of whom do not read, you
have only to write it down on paper and put the paper in front of them. They will never read it.” In Anguilla, to be transparent and
accountable about some important new proposal, it is necessary to talk to the
people and explain what you propose. It
is not sufficient merely to write it down and put the paper on a website and
never speak openly about it.
Government has now held its
first public meeting on Tuesday May 14 to present the 2019 Bill to the public. This was at St Augustine’s Anglican Church at
East End. I was away from Anguilla, and was
not able to attend the consultation. But,
a perusal of an article in the 17 May Anguillian Newspaper appears to
show that none of the government representatives at the consultation took the
opportunity to explain what was being proposed (by way of deviating from the
major recommendations).
In addition to being a betrayal
of Anguillian expectations, I believe this 2019 Bill is contrary to what our
government promised Lord Ahmad (the British Minister for the Overseas
Territories) would be the way going forward. Lord Ahmad, it will be recalled, gave in to
government’s request to urgently introduce by Order in Council the constitutional
and electoral changes taken from the 2017 Report that they wanted done
immediately. In exchange, government
agreed that they would thereafter turn their attention to implementing the
remainder of the constitutional and electoral reform proposals set out in the
2017 Report. Government promised Lord
Ahmad that they would enact ALL of
the major constitutional and electoral reform proposals, save where they
secured the approval of Anguillians to making any variation. Government appears not to be living up to
that promise.
All well-intentioned Anguillians
must demand that the Attorney-General’s Chambers incorporate in the 2019 Bill
the omitted recommendations for cleaning up the Voters’ List and for
introducing campaign financing regulation.
The sections have already been drafted in the main part following best
practice elsewhere in the Caribbean and can easily be incorporated. Only bad faith with the Anguillian public
would cause the provisions to continue to be left out.
If your readers consider this
matter important enough, they will make their views known at any future “town
hall” meeting and at every other opportunity and through every medium until
government accedes to the wishes of the people.
They might indicate their dissatisfaction directly to their elected
representatives. Letters, emails, telephone
calls, WhatsApp and other electronic messages to their elected representatives
will help. A quiet word at the Post
Office, in the supermarket, or outside church on Saturday or Sunday mornings
would not hurt. Hopefully, government
will as a result of public pressure come to its senses and do the right thing.
If any of your readers should have any question on any of this, they should not hesitate to contact me by
email at idmitch@anguillanet.com.
