The Constituencies Commission Report was tabled in the House of Assembly by House Speaker and Commission Chairman, Patricia Deveaux last week.
The Commission recommended several changes including the shifting of the boundaries of several constituencies, the addition of two new constituencies as well as constituency name changes.
Debate on the changes began in the House of Assembly on Wednesday led by Deputy Prime Minister and Commission Member, the Hon. Chester Cooper. He told Parliamentarians, “the Commission considered demographics, it considered geography, it considered the most recent census in the context of population shifts. Because we know people move, communities move, new developments come, infrastructure changes, family islands change. We either respond sensibly or we pretend nothing happened and then we complain that the system is unfair.”
One of the new constituencies recommended by the Commission is St. James which is located in western New Providence. It consist of two polling divisions from the Killarney constituency, five polling divisions from Golden Isles, three from Tall Pines and one polling division from Southern Shores.
Cooper said, “the constituency summary from the Parliamentary Registration Department shows Killarney with 7,073 voters and Golden Isles with 7,485 voters. That level of concentration in a growing area creates pressure that the commission is obligated to consider.”
Member of Parliament for St. Barnabas, Shanendon Cartwright represented the Opposition on the Commission. He also addressed Parliament on the tabled report saying that while he signed the report criticism remains on some of the changes made.
He said, “that the Bahamian people could continue to have confidence that our Parliamentary democracy is safeguarded by the way in which we conduct the voter registration process, by the way in which we clean up the voter register and to make sure that, for example, deceased voters… There also needs to be clarity relative to the verification process.”
The changes were agreed by the Members of Parliament and will be sent to the Governor General for signing.
