MAR 20

Supervisor of Elections Victor Ashby has come out in support of the way the Parliamentary Electoral Office handled the controversial November 27 general election.

He brushed aside reports emanating in some quarters such as the Organisation of American States (OAS) about the process being flawed. The hemispheric body has complained in the past about the number of persons on the voter's list, estimated at 82, 000 given the population on the island of roughly 100, 000 persons.

Ashby, the Principal of the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS), said that despite the odds, the performance of the Electoral Office was commendable. "I think that the criticisms will have to do with some extension of the mind", he remarked.

The Elections Supervisor made the comment last week at the conclusion of a meeting involving himself, the OAS Representative in Grenada, Francis Mc. Barnette as well as Opposition Leader Tillman Thomas and other Parliamentarians associated with the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The NDC is challenging the outcome of the Carriacou & Petite Martinique seat in court in which its deputy political leader George Prime lost by seven votes to Foreign Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod.

The Congress party is contending that the voting process was flawed in that one ballot could not be accounted for, and that someone on the sister island allegedly voted for another registered voter known to be living in the United States.

According to Ashby, whenever one examines properly the process used in the election, one has nothing but praise for the delivery of the election, the preparation and for the process on the whole. "I think what really caused the discussion (in the country) is the interest in the fact that in a 15-member parliament there is a team of eight and a team of seven. And to me that is where the discussion was triggered", he said.

The ruling New National Party (NNP) of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell won eight seats as opposed to seven for the congress party. Since the poll, the NDC has been calling for a reform of the Electoral Process to ensure continuous registration of voters and mechanisms to take out of the system the names of dead persons and inactivate voters.

During the November 27 election, several persons across the country complained about being holders of National Identification Cards but were unable to cast their ballots because their names were either removed or transferred to another polling station on the Electoral List without their consent.

The result of the polls also resulted in Governor General Sir Daniel Williams taking steps to set up an inquiry into the electoral process.