The
Great “At-Large Seats” Trick
Anguilla’s
population is approximately 13,000. Demographically,
Anguilla is a typical developing country.
A majority of the population consists of school children and
babies. These are not included on a
Voters’ List. The Voters’ List
supposedly contains only persons who were resident in one of the electoral
districts at the time they were registered.
In the 2015 general elections, there were 10,908
registered voters. It must be
questionable that, with a majority of the inhabitants being children, Anguilla
could muster 10,908 voters out of a total population of 13,000. It is evident that a large number of
registered voters must reside outside of Anguilla. It must be questionable whether they ever
qualified to be included on the Voters’ List.
In 2015, some 7,978 persons voted. These included plane-loads of supporters
flown in from overseas the day before the poll.
They voted for 7 representatives from 7 districts. The AUF won 6 districts with 54.47% of the
votes cast, thus forming the government; the AUM won no districts with 38.24%
of the votes; and Pam Webster won her seat with 5.92% of the votes, thus
becoming the sole member of the opposition in the House of Assembly.
When the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission
of 2006 (and the succeeding Committee of 2015) was established and began its
work, it was soon agreed that Anguilla’s representative arrangements for the
House of Assembly were undemocratic. One
of the major tasks set by the Committee in its 2017 Report was to restore
Anguilla’s representative system to a reasonably democratic state. Why is the representative system of Anguilla said
to be undemocratic?
First, there are two Nominated Members who sit and vote
in the House. They are nominated by the
Governor, who can sometimes be under the undue influence of a persuasive Chief
Minister or Premier. Nominated members
are a hold-over from the ancient colonial period when the governor nominated
all the members of the House. They have
no place in a modern democratic system.
After the 2015 elections, 2 members of one influential Island
Harbour family that generally supports the AUF party were nominated to fill
both Nominated Member positions. After a
shaky start, both Nominated Members demonstrated their total and unwavering support
for the AUF administration, and their rejection of every opposition initiative
in the House.
Further, in most of the electoral districts in Anguilla,
success in general elections depends on a combination of how many family
members reside in the district and how many (disqualified) supporters the
candidates have infiltrated into the Voters List. The numbers of voters in each is so small that
few are unrelated to one or more of the candidates. Elections are more a matter of tribal
alliance than issue based competition.
Second, the 2 ex-officio members of the House (the
Attorney-General and the Deputy Governor) have a theoretical vote, though they
seldom exercise it. They sit in the
House as full voting members even though no one elected them to the House. That is clearly anti-democratic.
Third, there are 7 elected seats in the House, and 4 of
them supply Ministers to fill the government.
That meant that Cabinet Ministers formed a majority of the 2015 elected
members of the House of Assembly. The result
is that when proposals from Cabinet come to the House for a vote, the House is
at best a rubber stamp for the decisions taken by Cabinet. That arrangement is clearly anti-democratic.
Constitutionally, the House is supposed to be an equal
branch of government, not a rubber stamp.
In any event, 4 Ministers of Government cannot effectively handle all
the portfolios of a modern government.
There is a long-standing demand for the number of Ministers to be
increased from 4 to 6.
Fourth, the people of Anguilla are entitled to more or
less equal representation in the House of Assembly. However, the 10,908 registered voters are
unevenly distributed among the 7 districts as follows. There are 1,696 in District 1; 964 in District 2; 2,005 in District 3; 2,355 in District 4; 1,187 in District 5; 1,718 in District 6; and 983 in District 7. This is very uneven representation and is
anti-democratic.
Equal representation can be achieved by having the
boundaries of the 7 districts periodically adjusted to ensure there are more or
less similar numbers of residents in each district. This is common throughout the Commonwealth
Caribbean. It is achieved by having the
House of Assembly from time to time accept the recommendations for new
boundaries proposed by an independent Boundaries Commission. Anguilla has never, since modern government
began in 1971, had an independent Boundaries Commission.
It is noticeable that in the 2015 elections, 3 of the 7 districts
won by the AUF contained over 6,078 voters, more than half of the 10,908 voters
on the List for all 7 districts combined.
Each district elects only one representative, so the voters of those 3
districts can be said to be underrepresented in the House.
Fifth, with only 7 elected seats, there is bound to be a
scarcity of talent in the House. There
are not enough voices to raise the level of debate. Many important issues never get an airing
because there are just not enough representatives to take hold of the
issues. There is a need to increase the
number of elected representatives, if only to raise the quality of debate in
the House.
The result of these weaknesses in Anguilla’s House of Assembly
is what has been called “Anguilla’s democracy deficit”. There is no real democracy in Anguillia’s
system of government. Whoever can trick
the system wins.
It was to solve these democracy deficit issues that the
2017 Report of the Constitutional and Electoral Reform Commission
recommended (1) nominated members be abolished; (2) the ex-officio members be
deprived of a right to vote; (3) the number of Ministers be increased from 4 to
6 and never exceed 50% of the membership of the House; (4) the boundaries of
the districts be adjusted periodically so that each district contains
approximately the same number of voters as the other districts; (5) the number
of representatives be increased to 13.
That last was to be achieved by increasing the number of districts from
7 to 9 and introducing 4 “at-large’ seats which would be voted for by the
entire voting list, so that the number of elected representatives would be
increased from 7 to 13. This is a total
package for reform. It is not amenable
to being split up. You cannot introduce
one of the reforms, and omit the others, and at the same time achieve progress.
And then somebody did the arithmetic. If the party that controlled the 2 Valley
Division districts could persuade the British to introduce the 4 at-large
members into the Constitution, while keeping the existing fraudulent Voters
List, and retaining the original 7 districts, with no revision of the
boundaries, then the voters from these 2 districts (plus any support from others)
would be enough to win the 4 at-large seats in the 2020 elections. The Opposition might win the vast majority of
the districts, but they would never win a majority of seats in the House. The party controlling the 2 Valley districts
would be guaranteed 6 representatives in the House, and control of government
after 2020.
In late 2018, without any discussion with the Anguillian
public, an appropriate representation was secretly made to Lord Tariq Ahmad,
Minister for the Overseas Territories in London. He agreed to the proposal. Once this proposal was revealed (by
publication of the draft Order in Council), the united Opposition in Anguilla protested
about the malign effect of allowing the administration to cherry-pick the
Committee’s recommendations for political advantage. Lord Ahmad, however, had already succumbed to
pressure from the local administration.
The result is the Anguilla Constitution (Amendment) Order 2019
which was signed into law in February.
This Order in Council allows the Elections Act to be
amended to introduce the 4 at-large seats without any of the other related reforms. This instrument represents Lord Ahmad’s
betrayal of the constitutional and electoral reform project in Anguilla. It is a betrayal by the British Government of
the promise of good governance for the people of Anguilla. The Elections Bill 2019 published on
the government website is their attempt to carry out this trickery.
The Elections Bill 2019 is an election gimmick. If the British government was serious about
good governance in Anguilla (which all the evidence indicates we should doubt) it
would never be signed into law.
