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Pastor
Leroy Benjamin
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On Tuesday Supervisor
of Elections Pastor Leroy Benjamin apologized for the
long lines at the polls on Election Day. "We would
like to apologize to especially those persons up at
the Bird Rock area in the stadium. We…should have
had an extra box in both places," Pastor Benjamin
said on national television after the final results
of the election were announced, Tuesday morning. "But
with all of the things that [have] happened, the analysts,
they didn't work that out properly. We take the blame
for that and we apologize to you. In Sandy Point as
well; and there were one or two places that the lines
were long," he acknowledged.
The supervisor said
the lines however, were indicative of good voter participation,
"…and we're glad that you took the time
out. The next time around we'll say to you that it
will be much more comfortable because all the adjustments
will be made." He also said that adjusting to
the new voter identification system may also have
contributed to delays. "I think that in the processing
they wanted to be so careful rather than processing
three or four persons one time and let them go I think
we recognize that as well."
He said overall, the
identification system was effective. "Those who
were using them for the very first time were very
careful in trying not to make a mistake, but the thing
is that in most of the cases…the presiding officers
didn't more than about two, two and a half minutes
to process each person who came in."
Healthy voter turnout
he said, also resulted in long lines. "If you
have sixty persons on a line spending two minutes
I think that tells you…that you're talking about
two hours." He assured the public that the electoral
office recognized the shortfalls, and would work to
address them. "By the next time around whatever
election it may be, that...the office should have
a better hold, a better understanding and things should
be a lot better."
Though the polls closed
at 6:00 Monday evening, those in line were allowed
to vote but at come stations the process ran until
nearly 10:00 o'clock. Results for Constituencies Five,
Eight and Nine did not start to come in until after
1:00 a.m., and the final boxes for Eight and Nine
were not announced until after 8:30 Tuesday morning.
Mr. Mark Brantley
of the Concerned Citizens Movement, the re-elected
representative for Nevis Nine, was indignant when
he spoke to WINN FM Tuesday. "I think the system
is just inefficient. If…I had my way I would
rip it up, rip up this nonsense reform and start all
over!" he said. "It is absolutely ridiculous
that to count seven thousand votes we have to wait
from 6:00 when the polls close last night to 8:00
this morning…it is absolutely unacceptable and
I think that that needs to change," Brantley
said, referring to the seven thousand voters registered
on Nevis.
"Having fought
this very difficult battle over the last two weeks
to have to wait until 8:00 this morning, I compare
it to Dominica…where they have a much larger
population they knew who their Government was before
midnight…and here we are waiting and waiting
and waiting," Mr. Brantley said.
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