Thursday, June 16, 2005
Universal disenfranchisement
The St. Helena Government has just changed the electoral constituencies (of which there were 8) and created two new constituencies - East and West. The reasons behind this are immaterial to this posting, but the impact is quite dramatic – universal disenfranchisement.
This remarkable achievement results from the fact that the electoral registration was completed a few weeks ago under the old constituency definitions, and the electoral legislation states that a voter can only vote in the constituency in which they are registered. As these no longer exist, nobody can vote.
There isn’t time to re-register all the voters before the next elections, so the obvious solution cannot be implemented.
Oops!
This remarkable achievement results from the fact that the electoral registration was completed a few weeks ago under the old constituency definitions, and the electoral legislation states that a voter can only vote in the constituency in which they are registered. As these no longer exist, nobody can vote.
There isn’t time to re-register all the voters before the next elections, so the obvious solution cannot be implemented.
Oops!
