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By Nakinskie Robinson
Amid discourse about increased voter apathy and a low turnout in elections, Director of Elections Glasspole Brown is proposing a mass enumeration exercise to purge the national voters' list.
His comment comes in response to newly elected Member of Parliament for North East St. Ann Matthew Samuda who purported that there are several registered voters who solely use their voters' ID as a form of identification and not to participate in elections.
"The ROPA (Representation of the People Act) indicates that everytime you register somebody, they must be given an ID card for voting purpose. But because there is no national ID as such, the voters' ID has morphed itself into being the national ID," the Director of Elections admitted.
Still, he suggested that the implementation of the National Identification System could help resolve the issue.
Mr. Brown said, apart from those who solely use their voters' ID as a form of identification, there is a significant number of people on the voters' list who have also migrated.
He said a new enumeration exercise could establish a more effective system and statistics that would allow for better assessments on voter turnout.
But this exercise, he acknowledged, would cost the government "close to $4 billion".
An estimated 11.6 per cent of the 43,827 eligible voters in the St. Ann North Eastern constituency participated in Monday's by-election.
The absence of the opposition People's National Party was expected to affect voter turnout.
At least three by-elections are expected to be announced soon.
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