With the district and island-wide elections in Anguilla, just around the corner, the Central Electoral Office is anxiously awaiting the completion of the repairs to, and upgrading of, the Atlin Harrigan Parliamentary Building which has a critical role to play.
On Monday, May 18, the Supervisor of Elections, Mr. Rodney Rey, his Deputy, Mrs. Maria Hughes, the seven Returning Officers and members of the Department of Information Technology, visited the House of Assembly to see the progress of the work.
It was found that there was still a considerable amount of internal work to be done, but that the contractor and his workmen were speeding up the process.
Mr. Rey outlined to The Anguillian newspaper how the Parliamentary Building will be used by the Central Electoral Office.
“The Electoral Office came to inspect the House of Assembly Building which will be used for four activities: Nomination Day for candidates; a public testing of the twenty electronic tabulation machines; the advance polls; and the counting of votes on the night of the elections.”
The Parliamentary Building was extensively damaged by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. The damage was done to large areas of the external and internal portions of the roof, the furniture and rug – thus causing the building to be shut down and the holding of the House of Assembly sittings in the adjoining Magistrate’s Court. It is one of the public sector buildings now being funded from the UK Government’s Humanitarian grant of 60 million pounds to Anguilla.
The Returning Officers are: District 1, Island Harbour, Sanford Richardson; District 2, East End/Sandy Hill, Vonlee Harris; District 3, Valley North, Laureen Bryan; District 4, Valley South, Melissa Meade; District 5, Road North, Patricia Wattley; District 6, Road South, Daphne Jacob-Richardson; and District 7, West End, Carolyn Richardson-Hodge.