The date has been set! Anguilla’s next general election will be held on Wednesday 22nd April 2015. The Supervisor of Elections, Returning Officers and others will be busy putting everything in place for nomination day on 9th April – and then Election Day. Are the candidates and voters ready to go? There has been much public discussion about who is, or is not, qualified to run for elected office; and who is, or is not, qualified to vote. The pundits are many on these issues, but I thought it would be instructive to share with you the provisions of the Anguilla Constitution as regards the required qualifications, and attempt to pass on some information which was shared with me by some of my acquaintances in the legal fraternity.
Section 36 of the Constitution deals with qualifications for elected membership and provides that:
“Subject to the provisions of the next following subsection, a person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the Assembly if, and shall not be qualified to be so elected unless, he is a person who belongs to Anguilla of twenty-one years or upwards who is registered as a voter in an electoral district in Anguilla and either:
(a) Was born in Anguilla and is domiciled there at the date of his nomination for election; or
(b) Has resided in Anguilla for a period of not less than three years immediately before the date of his nomination for election and is domiciled there at that date and is the son or daughter of parents at least one of whom was born in Anguilla.
There are some important words in this section which may require further explanation. One such word is domiciled. A person’s domicile is where he or she has a permanent home. A person can only be domiciled in one place at a time. There are domiciles of origin (based on place of birth) and domiciles of choice (based on the action of a person in moving permanently to another country with the definite intention of abandoning his or her domicile of origin). Domiciles of origin are difficult to lose and, usually, even though a person may live outside his or her country of birth, he or she can still be domiciled there.
Another requirement that causes some confusion is the requirement that a person must be resident in Anguilla. Many persons interpret this to mean physically resident on a daily basis. However, it appears that the courts have interpreted the residence requirement liberally. In order to be resident in a country, a person does not have to be physically present there all the time. What is required is that he or she has a home there to which he or she has the liberty to return if he or so chooses. It is on this basis that several persons who live overseas return to Anguilla to run for elected office or to vote.
The Constitution then goes on to list persons who, though eligible to run for office, are disqualified from doing so. These include persons who, by virtue of their own act, are under allegiance to a foreign state. It is this section which has caused much debate in the public regarding whether candidates with dual citizenship (ie. citizens of more than one country) have renounced their citizenship in a foreign country. Some persons also advocate for the removal of this requirement on the basis of Anguilla’s history of migration as a means of making a better life and for the survival of those who were left behind. There is some merit in this argument and perhaps it is one of the areas of constitutional amendment to be considered in future. Other persons disqualified from elected office include Ministers of Religion (in active service), public servants, un-discharged bankrupts, the insane, persons imprisoned for more than a year and those disqualified for election offences.
Having explained the terms domicile and residence in layman’s language, section 43 of the Constitution which addresses the qualifications of voters should be easier to understand:
“Subject to the next following subsection a person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter in an electoral district if he is of the age of eighteen years and upwards and:
(a) is a British Dependent Territories citizen born in Anguilla and is domiciled there at the qualifying date; or
(b) (i) is a person who belongs to Anguilla who has resided in Anguilla for a period of not less than twelve months immediately before the qualifying date, and is domiciled there at that date, and is the lawful spouse, widow or widower, or the son or daughter or the spouse of such son or daughter of a person who was born in Anguilla; or
(ii) is a person who belongs to Anguilla who is domiciled in Anguilla and has resided there for a period of at least five years immediately before the qualifying date; and
(c) is at the qualifying date resident in the electoral district in which he claims to be registered.”
This is the criteria used to determine who is qualified to vote and whose name appears on the electoral register. Many views have been expressed about the registration process and the number of persons on the electoral register. It is my view that they are registered because they have produced sufficient information to demonstrate that they meet the requirements of the Constitution outlined above. If for some reason a person whose name appears on the register is dead or is disqualified from voting (eg. a person sentenced to imprisonment for more than one year, the insane and those disqualified for election offences), there are mechanisms that can be used to have his or her name removed from the register.
In determining the eligibility of a person to vote, the qualifying date is important. The qualifying date is the date by which a person must be qualified to be registered as a voter. In our system of continuous registration, it is the last day of every quarter of every year. The last qualifying date for the purpose of the 2015 elections is 31st March 2015. This is the date by which persons must have been qualified to register in order to vote in the 2015 elections.
There is a role for candidates and parties in ensuring the integrity of the electoral register. While the electoral processes in Anguilla are robust and transparent, it is unreasonable to expect Electoral Registration Officers to be fully abreast of the circumstances which would necessitate the removal, from the register, of names of persons who would be eligible to vote but are now dead or disqualified. There must therefore be some vigilance by candidates to ensure that the register is purged and current for the process to work well.
Each of us also has a role to play in ensuring that our general elections are in keeping with the principles of democracy. We ought to be respectful and follow the instructions given at the polling stations; observe the codes of conduct expected on election day; exercise our right to vote and allow others to exercise their right freely. The cooperation of every citizen is critical to ensuring the smooth and peaceful conduct of elections. We all ought to do our part to support the process.
