Chief Electoral Officer, Angela Taylor speaking to the media at Wednesday’s press conference while Deputy Chief Electoral Officer, Ian Browne, (left) and Chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission, John Haynes, (right) listen attentively. (S.Medford/BGIS)

Only persons who have been confirmed by the Registrar as deceased are deleted from the Register of Electors.

This was confirmed by Chief Electoral Officer, Angela Taylor, as she recently addressed a press conference held at Warrens Tower II, in reference to reports that hundreds of persons have been deleted from the List of Electors.

Ms. Taylor stated that there was a process to be followed when deleting deceased persons from the Register.

“We have to publish the names that we intend to delete; we have to give members of the public four weeks to get back to us and say if there is any reason why we shouldn’t delete [a name].  We correct any errors that we might have made and then we print the list of persons who we have deleted,” the Electoral official outlined.

In addition, the Chief Electoral Officer alluded to those persons who may have changed their address but are not yet registered in that constituency, noting that they are still being investigated.

“When persons register or make amendments to their registration, such as change of address, we have our registering officers go out into the constituency and do the investigations, which comprises confirming that they are living at the address and confirming exactly which constituency, depending on the boundary lines and exactly which polling district, they are living in,” Ms. Taylor explained.

She added that persons who have not submitted a form but are registered at their current address would have presented themselves to the Electoral and Boundaries Commission at some point.

“When a person loses their ID card and they come to replace it we ask ‘what’s your address?’ and if it is what we have on the system it stays. If you give us something different we will update your record… Our new registration software also requires that a person who is registering a child must be first registered in the system. So, if on registering a child [the parent] gives their address and it is different to what we have on record, again this is one of those instances in which we will change the address,” Ms. Taylor pointed out.

The updated Register of Electors will be published and printed on Friday, May 18.

sharifa.medford@barbados.gov.bb

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