Over the past several months there has been much discussion in Anguilla on the use of electoral ink, whereby voters in the 2015 general election, as in 2010, will be required to immerse their appropriate finger, after the thumb, in ink before putting their ballot in the box.
The obvious reason for this provision is to avoid electoral fraud – in other words, to prevent the possibility of multi-voting in the various constituencies.
However, what appears to have escaped the attention of the public, and needs to be taken into account, is the fact that the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2014, passed in the House of Assembly, also provides for the use of a new form for the nomination of candidates.
Clause 8 of the Amendment amends Schedule 2 of the Principal Act as follows:
“(a) in Form 5 to make provision for the particulars of the nominee and the making of a declaration of qualification which will place the onus squarely on the nominee to consider his eligibility to offer himself [/herself] as a candidate for election at the outset, rather than further into the electoral process.”
Under that new Form 5, candidates are now required to sign the following declaration which they were not required to do before:
“I…………………………….nominated in the foregoing nomination paper hereby consent to such nomination as a candidate for election as a member of the House of Assembly for the Electoral District of No……I hereby declare that I meet the requirements set out in section 36 of the Constitution of Anguilla and I am qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly. I further declare that I am not disqualified from being elected as a member of the Assembly by the provisions set out in section 37 of the Anguilla Constitution.”
The Amendment Act has also amended the Principal Act with the insertion of a new section –76A entitled –“False Declaration”. That section reads as follows: “Every person who knowingly or negligently makes a declaration as to their qualification to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly pursuant to sections 36 and 37 of the Anguilla Constitution Order 1982 and that declaration is false is guilty of making a false declaration within the meaning of this Act.”
The insertion of a further new section – 78A – provides a prison penalty for false declaration. That section is as follows:
“The Principal Act is amended by inserting immediately after section 78 the following –
“Every person who is guilty of false declaration is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for 2 years.”
By requiring candidates to make an early declaration of being qualified before the general election, gives them an opportunity to avoid being adjudged disqualified later on and therefore face the possibility of the above penalty.
It is understood that one way in which a candidate may be disqualified, is not to have renounced US or other citizenship and not officially registered to have done so.
