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‘Let Voters place own ballot paper in Ballot Box’- 2015 Election Observers
Let voters do it themselves
In regards to when voters arrived at the voting stations or polls to vote, the CPA BIMR group in its recommendations laid on the table of the House of Assembly on April 18, 2016 as part of the General Elections Report, raised concerns about the ballot paper once persons have voted.
The Observer Mission stated that “consideration should be given for voters themselves to be able to place their own ballot paper in the ballot box and should not (unless support is required for incapacity reasons) be obliged to hand it to the Presiding Officer to do so on their behalf, which might compromise the secrecy of the ballot.”
The CPA BIMR 2015 Virgin Islands Election Observer Mission believes this would also save time in the voting process.
Media Watchdog
With the National Democratic Party (NDP) using its advantages of money and media access to dominate the airways, sometimes campaigning in a clever way through the Government Information Service (GIS), the Observer Mission also made some recommendation about media coverage.
It called for a media watchdog to be created “to establish and enforce regulations that evenly distribute air and television time, as well as space in print media to guarantee that all parties and candidates have equal access to and balanced coverage by the media and the public.”
Code of Conduct recommended
In addition, the Observer Mission also recommended a code of conduct during the elections. In its report, now a public document, it wrote “to reduce the level of negative campaigning comprising of personal attacks and accusations, candidates and parties should be required to sign a ‘Code of Conduct’ for the duration of an election campaign whereby they commit to a respectful and clean issues based campaign.”
The Observer Mission, which was invited to monitor the 2015 snap general elections with the approval of both the former Opposition Leader Hon Ralph T. O’Neal OBE and Governor John S. Duncan OBE, also believed that a code of conduct “would heighten the level of real discussion and debate during an election campaign and would encourage the electorate to have a higher regard for the candidates they are selecting to represent them in government.”
The NDP won the June 8, 2015 snap elections in a landslide, taking 11 out of 13 seats with the Opposition Virgin Islands Party (VIP) securing the other 2.
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9 Responses to “‘Let Voters place own ballot paper in Ballot Box’- 2015 Election Observers”
9 elected district members to represent approx 40,000 people is far too many( 1:4444) and 4 at large members for 40000(1:10000). How about a constitutional change to decrease the number of elected members. There is often a call for Jost Van Dyke and Anegada to each have their own dedicated elected member. What they need is more effective representation, not more representation.