Anguilla’s Supervisor of Elections, Ms. Aurjul Wilson, has spoken about changes which will be made to the polling plans later this year.
Speaking to The Anguillian newspaper, she indicated that she was awaiting information about some additional equipment needed for the elections, but she nevertheless mentioned the need for changes to be made to some aspects of the polling system.
“We are continuing to prepare for the elections but I have to a kind of pause because some things have changed with regard to the educational process,” she disclosed. “Since we last spoke, and since I started the educational process, it has been determined that we will now use the tabulation machines at the district level. As a result I will have to change the method in terms of explaining how you vote to the general public. I do not have the machines on the island as yet, and therefore I have to wait until I get them so that I can demonstrate to persons how to use the machines.”
Ms. Wilson said there would probably be eleven machines. The bigger districts of 3, 4 and 6 will have two machines and the other districts will have one machine each.
She went on: “I will have to go back and reconfigure the set-up of the polling stations so that they can access the same machine and, of course, that depends on where the electrical outlets and those kinds of things are. From that perspective I have a lot of work to do. Also, although the roof of the House of Assembly is now on, I understand that the inside is not finished, but I need to have that central location for the advanced polls as well as for the counting. So I have to keep a watchful eye on that as well. In terms of some of the schools, that are undergoing renovations, I will again have to identify the blocks for [the polling stations].”
Although, as of now, the date of the elections is unknown, the Supervisor said: “In all seriousness I need to know that date so that I can plan properly…and to have the administration of the process done properly.”
In the meantime, as Ms. Wilson prepares for the district and island-wide elections in Anguilla, she and two of her staff members visited Dutch St. Maarten this week for Thursday’s elections there.
It was a return visit to St. Maarten for one paid here in October last year when a delegation from that territory visited Anguilla to witness the mock new voting and counting system. Time however did not permit St. Maarten to consider the possibility of having a similar system. On the other hand, Anguilla witnessed the BVI’s elections recently to learn about the system there which has similarities to that of Anguilla.
