Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall has confirmed that over 170,000 new persons are registered for upcoming gender equality referendum.
Persons that were not registered for the last referendum would’ve had to register for the upcoming gender equality referendum.
“In terms of the numbers, as of yesterday, we have 179, 829 registered Bahamians on that register,” he said.
“They are the people who have just been entered up to today. “
The deadline for registering for the upcoming referendum is today. Mr. Hall says Parliamentary Registration has done its job in ensuring that Bahamians are notified of the deadline.
The last referendum which was held in The Bahamas, was in 2013 to legalize gambling for citizens.
Voter turnout was said to be low and during the two-part referendum voters were asked whether gambling shops should be legalized, regulated and taxed and also if the government should create its own lottery.
For the last referendum a total of 27,31 voted yes to the regulation of web shops and 42,393 voted no.
For the past few weeks there has been constant back and forth on the passing of the four bills which will be proposed in the upcoming referendum.
Bill one stated that a married Bahamian woman will have the same rights as a married Bahamian man to pass her the citizenship on to child; next bill two proposes that the foreign spouse of a Bahamian woman will have the same rights as the spouse of a Bahamians man to become a Bahamians citizen; then bill three proposes that an unmarried Bahamian man will have the same rights as an unmarried Bahamian woman to pass his citizenship on to his child; lastly bill four proposes that discrimination be removed from the constitution on the basis of sex.
Bill four has raised the most discussion so far as many believe it will lead to a slippery slope of same sex marriage in The Bahamas. When the vote was raised for bill four in Parliament, it was the only bill that received two nays, 34 yays, one abstention and one absentee.
The referendum is set for June 7, 2016.
