With much of the intense preparatory work for the April 22 general election in Anguilla now in her grasp, Supervisor of Elections, Ms. Aurjul Wilson, is beginning to breathe a sigh of relief though still extremely busy.
There are a few remaining matters still for her to supervise. These are the Nomination Day process on Thursday, April 9; the printing of the ballots; and the printing and posting of the final Voters’ List – the latter being just two days before the election, due to time constraints.
“We were supposed to have the final list by tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31. That is no longer possible because on March 20 we got 170-plus objections to the preliminary list and so those persons [objected to] need to be heard,” Ms Wilson told The Anguillian on Monday, March 30. “We sent out the notices last week and the hearings started today. You have to appreciate that there is one Electoral Officer [Pricilla Gumbs] who has to hear these matters, and then there are the 170-plus names involved. What we have to do was to schedule the hearings down until Thursday [because this is Holy Week].”
Replying to a question regarding the seemingly rush of work, Ms Wilson continued: “Ideally it would have been nice if we had more time, so that we would not have had to push back the final List of Voters until the 20th of April – just two days short of election day. This is because we had to afford people time to respond to objections, have the hearings; and then issue a determination.”
Ms. Wilson said that “most of the objections were due to the fact the voters do not live in the particular districts.” She stressed that the persons objected to “are still registered voters, so a determination has to be made whether they legitimately live in those districts and remain on the list there, or whether or not they should be transferred to another district, but they are qualified voters.”
Ms. Wilson disclosed that up to Monday there were seven appeals – against decisions taken by the Registration Officer for – hearing in the Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning. “There are a number of things going on simultaneously and I went over to the Electoral Office to make sure that my officers felt that they were supported and to ensure that they were performing in a professional manner. I want to make sure that the election is free and fair; that everybody gets a fair hearing, and that officers as well are not really ostracised and are given guidance by me when needed.”
The Supervisor of Elections could not say for certain how many voters would be on the final list, but she stated that as of March 15 there were “approximately a little over eleven thousand.” She went on: “What we found, coming out of the publishing of the names in the newspaper of those persons whose names appeared twice on the list, was that it was not one person appearing several times. The majority of them were really different people…We had a very good turnout in terms of people responding and some of them were like fathers and sons who had the same names, but with Jr. not attached to them.”
She was asked what her main responsibilities coming up were. She responded: “The printing of the ballots is probably the major one; but I think even so than the printing of the ballots, is the printing of the final Voters List because we have to come in on a weekend to do that. As I said, the final list will only be ready two days before the election and that is a whole host of printing we have to do. Unfortunately, this is a lot of weekend work. The schools will not be available until after Tuesday (April 21). It means that the officers who are required to set up the preparations are the same ones who are required to appear early the next morning for the election. So it is a challenge in terms of trying to get as much done as possible in advance.
“Actually, placing the election in the middle of the week was not a good idea for me because it calls for a whole lot of things in terms of getting everything ready. If you had a weekend, you could work better…The filing of the objections, last minute, was not necessarily for me the ideal thing, but I think we overcame that challenge in terms of doing what was necessary; that there were no foul ups and that we were prepared. We rose to the challenge.”
Questioned whether she thought there were any unforeseeable problems, the Supervisor of Elections replied: “Not that I see. The only thing that really could be bad, at this point, is if when I got to the printer his machines are not working. That’s why, as soon as nominations are over, I will get the prototype, take it over there [to St. Maarten], and get the printing of the ballots done.”
Ms. Wilson has already met with all candidates of the Anguilla United Front and the DOVE Party, “all but one of the Anguilla United Movement and all but one of the independent candidates” and is so far satisfied that they are qualified for nomination. She will now be introducing them and their agents to the Election Officers probably next week. On Monday she met with Police Officers in connection with their roles at the polling stations.
Ms. Wilson is grateful for the support she is receiving from a number of persons in her difficult role as Supervisor of Elections.
She told The Anguillian: “As I was walking to come to see you and I got by the Post Office, Allister Richardson, a past Permanent Secretary, said to me:
“How are you doing? As a Permanent Secretary, once you take on a role you have to see it to the end. You must be really busy.”
“I am. Thanks a lot,” I replied.
Ms. Wilson added: “It is nice to know that people like him could offer his support. I got a call the other day from somebody who was a Registration Officer, at one point, to commend the whole upgrading of the information work. You appreciate such calls and those asking if anything they could do to help – of course only by colleagues can do that. But those are the conversations that energise you – not the babble and insinuations from certain people which you don’t have to take on.”
