Over seventy persons, who served in various capacities during the arrangements for the 2015 general election in Anguilla, have been thanked for their service at a reception held at Government House.
Speaking at the reception on April 30, Governor Christina Scott said the election officers had spent an extraordinary amount of time doing a very specialised job, and that she was extremely grateful to them for the support given to her and the Deputy Governor.
Supervisor of Elections, Ms. Aurjul Wilson, thanked the Governor for acknowledging the service given by the men and women to the electoral process. The commendations for the successful 2015 election go to the team of officers for their countless hours of training and work, she said. She expressed sincere thanks to the 71-plus officers, including a number of veteran personnel, who assisted in training the junior workers, and all other persons from the Central Election Office, the IT Unit and the legal team from the Attorney General’s Chambers, as well as her fellow Permanent Secretaries and others.
She offered special thanks to Mr. Colville Petty, the former Supervisor of Elections, who made himself available for any assistance during the training of the election officers, and for also calling on Nomination Day to offer his support and advice.
“The success of the 2015 general election was due to a collaborative effort and I thank you all,” Ms. Wilson stated.
“I apologise for the uninformed remarks made by members of our community…Despite that we remained focused,” she went on. “I know it is difficult to be patriotic when other persons blatantly ignore our good deeds, but what we did was for our country.”
Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks, joined in thanking the Supervisor of Elections and the election officers for their difficult work. He said that he and his colleagues were humbled by the fact that voters stayed in the lines at the polling stations for up to three and four hours just to vote. He noted, however, that at the end of the day it was part of the democratic process and people were more than anxious to exercise that right.
Addressing the election officers directly, he stated: “I know that you had to put up with a lot of frustrations doing your job; and I think that your commitment and dedication was evident, even when you were shouted at when you wanted to have a break for refreshment and lunch. I think that, all in all, everything went well. I am certain that there are some people who are still dissatisfied with the process and that only means that the process can be improved; and we are looking forward, over the next five years, and certainly in the immediate future, to begin working on ways and means to facilitate and improve the democratic process. This is because we cannot afford to have any issues that deter persons, especially young people… to stand in the line for so long to exercise that right [to vote].”
Referring to the overwhelming victory of his Anguilla United Front party at the polls, Mr. Banks added: “We must continue to modernise our system but, at the end of the day, Anguilla has proved that, despite the fact that the system was not perfect, the outcome was almost perfect.”
