Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis said yesterday that the failed referendum was a clear message to the government and the world that Bahamians so not want changes to the constitution.
Dr. Minnis insisted that Bahamians spoke peacefully, but yet loudly in Tuesday’s vote.
“The results were clearly a rejection of the PLP Government who unfairly favoured one side above another,”
“Speaking to the point of the government funding one side of the campaign, Dr. Minnis purports that it is demonstrably unfair for a government to use the peoples’ taxes to fund one side of the issue while denying funding to the opposite view.” said Dr. Minnis.
He said that an FNM government will enact legislation to remove this discriminatory practice in future referenda.
“We in the FNM have always believed that our responsibility is to empower Bahamians and our vote in the House of Assembly fourteen years ago and again earlier this year was to empower Bahamians by giving them the right to decide what their constitution should contain,” he said.
Meantime the opposition leader pointed out a few challenges encountered during Tuesday’s referendum.
According to Dr. Minnis, in some instances, balloting proceeded in the absence of observers, and hard copies of the voters register in some cases were not available on time.
“Unfortunately, the process used in yesterday’s referendum revealed a number of flaws which resulted in many persons being denied their fundamental right to cast their ballot and could possibly cast a long dark shadow on our country’s ability to hold free and fair elections,” Dr. Minnis lamented.
There was a lack of clear instructions from the parliamentary officials regarding the presence and dress code of Observers; contrary to agreements made with the Parliamentary Commissioner to allow members of the major political parties to act as observers, many observers from the FNM were denied entry into the polling places because they wore red shirts,” he said.
“ In many cases polls were opened and balloting proceeded before the FNM observers were finally allowed in the room. Hard copies of the register of voters were not available on time and in most cases not available at all, at some polling places. Voters were instructed to write no or yes in answer to the questions rather than to mark an X,” Dr. Minnis continued.
These among other irregularities, Dr. Minnis said, generate great concern, and need to be addressed before the 2017 general election.
In light of this, Dr. Minnis said the FNM is demanding that international organizations be invited to observe the upcoming general elections.
