Fellow Anguillians, it grieves me beyond measure to reflect on what has transpired in the House of Assembly this week, as the Elections (Amendment) Act 2020 was tabled for its second and third reading. You will recall that in July of 2019 the Elections Act (2019) was passed into law and, as the sole member of the Opposition, I worked tirelessly to stop this piece of legislation which can only be described as an utter betrayal of citizenship participation in Anguilla.
Let me take you briefly down memory lane as I recount the circumstances which have brought us to this most disgraceful and shameful moment in our political history as a nation:
- The Constitutional and Electoral Reform Committee, chaired by Mr. Don Mitchell Q.C., (and with representation from all political parties) held extensive consultations with the people of Anguilla, in an open and transparent process. It tabled before the House of Assembly a Report which outlined the reforms which the people have called for to strengthen our electoral system:
• Fixed Date for Elections;
• An Electoral Boundaries Commission, which included the redrawing of electoral boundaries to achieve Equal Suffrage;
• Increasing the electoral districts from seven to nine;
• Adding four island-wide representatives;
• A new enumeration process to give us a New Voter’s List;
• Removing the unelected nominated members;
• Removing the vote in the Assembly from the ex-officio members;
• Giving foreign-born grandchildren the right to vote in elections if they were resident;
• Campaign Finance Regulations;
• An Integrity Commission to police the adherence to constitutional standards of elected persons; and
• The Right of certain persons to Stand for Elections.
The above are some of the reforms that the people of Anguilla demanded. - Subsequent to this, the AUF administration engaged in a cherry-picking approach to Electoral Reform, pushing through the reforms that best served their bid for re-election, and deliberately excluding the implementation of reforms for a holistic and transparent process in the best interest of the people, for free, fair and democratic elections. This resulted in the Elections Act (2019) being passed into law, despite several objections by my office, as Leader of the Opposition, and several representations made in the House of Assembly, in local media and in letters to the Governor and Lord Ahmad, the Minister responsible in the U.K.
- Now, less than a year later, this same AUF Administration has come once again to table the Elections (Amendment) Act 2020. This document, with over 24 pages of amendments to the Elections Act (2019), seeks to incorporate the specific mechanics relating to the electronic tabulating machines that will be used. However, this is a glaring example of the ad hoc procedures and incompetence of this AUF administration which did not take the time in 2019 to address these issues in the Elections Act which was forced down the throats of the Anguillian people.
- To add insult to injury, the Elections (Amendment) Act 2020 deletes Section 34 of the Elections Act 2019. This Section speaks to a Fixed Date for Elections. In my debate on this bill at the House of Assembly on 10th March 2020, I called on the Minister of Home Affairs and the Elected Member for District 2, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, to explain why this was the case. It was obvious to every lawyer that in the absence of a constitutional amendment (which was never made) fixed date elections could never replace the provisions of the 1982 Constitution. The Minister, in several public statements, told the people of this country that the Fixed Date Provisions for Elections was being included in the legislation. Now she is completely silent on why they removed this provision – the People of Anguilla have been treated with contempt.
- The hypocrisy is stifling is not only confined to the AUF administration, but also sits at the feet of the Leader of the APM. After advocating for his inclusion in the negotiation team meetings with the British representatives on Constitutional Reform, Dr. Ellis Lorenzo Webster sided immediately with the AUF to forego any changes to the Constitutional and Electoral Reform process until after the General Elections. Perhaps Dr. Webster did not have the foresight, vision or leadership to look past his own party’s self-serving interest – and to side with the people and demand the reforms mentioned above that would strengthen our electoral system proper. Now, the leader of the APM and his party have put forward a coordinated effort to object to Anguillians on the voter’s list – again failing to take into consideration his own potential shortcoming in relation to the residency threshold to participate at the polls himself!
I urge all Anguillians to think independently of the two political parties that are surely destined to take our country down a dark path of deception shrouded in hypocrisy. To continue along this path would be cruel and unusual punishment for all our people. We must stand together and do the right thing by exercising our vote to put an end to the dysfunctional political parties in our jurisdiction.
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