With the renewed attention being placed on constitutional reform it is anticipated that one of the issues that will attract significant attention will be the eligibility of persons to be registered to vote. The editorial of 26th April, 2024, titled “The Mystery of Voter Registration” is therefore being reprinted to remind persons of the current requirements to be registered to vote in Anguilla and to, hopefully, generate discussions which will inform the provisions governing voter registration in a revised constitution.
“The Mystery of Voter Registration
Who is qualified to be registered to vote in Anguilla’s elections? What makes persons eligible to be registered? The recent suggestion of the possibility of the abandonment of the existing registers of voters compiled under the continuous voter registration system, thereby requiring persons already registered to apply to be registered, has sparked some lively debates among Anguillians in Anguilla and the diaspora.
It should be reasonable to expect that Section 43 of the Anguilla Constitution would provide answers to the questions posed above. But does it? The Constitution is a legal document and despite being the guiding document for citizens as they seek to understand the affairs of Government, including voter registration, some legal expertise is necessary to understand who is qualified to be registered as a voter in Anguilla. Section 43 is set out below so that persons can make their own judgment.
“Qualification of voters
43. (1) Subject to the next following subsection a person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter in an electoral district if he is of the age of eighteen years and upwards and—
(a) is a British Dependent Territories citizen born in Anguilla, and is domiciled there at the qualifying date; or
(b) (i) is a person who belongs to Anguilla who has resided in Anguilla for a period of not less than twelve months immediately before the qualifying date, and is domiciled there at that date, and is the lawful spouse, widow or widower, or the son or daughter or the spouse of such son or daughter of a person who was born in Anguilla; or
(ii) is a person who belongs to Anguilla who is domiciled in Anguilla and has resided there for a period of at least five years immediately before the qualifying date; and
(c) is at the qualifying date resident in the electoral district in which he claims to be registered.
(2) Every person who is qualified to be registered as a voter in any electoral district shall be entitled to be so registered provided that a person shall not be registered as a voter in more than one electoral district.”
Who is a British Dependent (Overseas) Territories Citizen? If you are not the holder of a passport how is this established? What does the term ‘domicile’ mean? What is the ‘qualifying date’ referred to in section 43? What does it mean to have ‘resided’ in Anguilla?
Most persons appear content to accept without question the status of a person registered to vote, as a British Dependent (Overseas) Territories Citizen. The same applies to a person’s domicile. The fact that there is a ‘qualifying date’ seems to be totally overlooked. Whether a person has resided in Anguilla for the requisite period attracts the most attention in discussions about eligibility to be registered as a voter. This is not surprising as the term “resided” is the one with which laypersons consider themselves most familiar.
In trying to understand section 43 it would be useful to remember that words may have ordinary meanings and be perceived in a particular manner by laypersons but be subject to a particular legal interpretation. The burning question must therefore be, – What in law amounts to being resident for the purposes of registration as a voter in Anguilla?
The report of the last Constitutional & Electoral reform Committee led by Mr. Don Mitchell QC has recommended the use of the term ‘ordinarily resident’ rather than “resident” in the hope that it would remove some of the apparent confusion caused by the use of term ‘resident.’ Would the terms ‘ordinarily resident’ achieve the desired result?”
