The draft amendments to the electoral laws relating to the registration process and the National Registration Act are expected to be distributed to stakeholders and interested parties for their views and recommendations very soon.
This was disclosed by the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall during his televised programme “Issues in the news” on Tuesday evening. According to the Attorney General, consultations will begin soon after the proposed amendments are distributed.
“The second set of electoral reforms relating to the registration act shall be made public within a matter of days. as the work has been essentially completed,” Nandlall stated.
Nandlall in a previous interview broadcasted on NCN explained that these specific amendments will deal with the clarification of the registration system and to effectively remove deceased voters.
Meanwhile, consultations are underway on the draft amendments to the Representation of the People’s Act, another aspect of electoral law reform. Only yesterday, the AG Chambers held a meeting with representatives from the Private Sector Commission and two other civil society bodies.
The Government will soon be engaging GECOM, a body that is integral to the elections process in this regard.
He said “They have also made many recommendations and many proposals for amendment; their submissions will be comprehensively dealt with at an engagement we will have shortly.” The first set of draft amendments proposes diving District Four (Region-4) into four sub-districts for the easy tabulation of results, , hefty fines and prison time for persons caught tampering with the elections results and the uploading of the Statements of Poll online as soon as they are made available.
