Grenada: NDC raise concerns over ‘voter padding'

Last updated: October 29, 2017 at 03:31 am

Electoral officials have sought to assure the public that electronic voting is secure and no one will be able to vote twice on election day.

The assurance came from Ferdinand Phillip, civic and education officer at the Parliamentary Elections Office, who said because voters are identified by fingerprints in the voting system “it will be highly impossible for a voter to vote twice even though the name appears twice on the eligible voters’ list.”

Phillip was responding to concerns raised by Joseph Andall, deputy leader of the de facto opposition National Democratic Congress party.

He said the NDC had identified a number of duplicated names and other irregularities on the voters’ list.

But Phillip defended the system.

“Duplication of names can occur for different reasons, chief among them are incorrect spelling of a name and change of name due to marriage or divorce but because the finger print for the person will remain the same, no one person will be able to cast two ballots on election day,” he said.

‘Concrete evidence’

Andall, who was speaking at a news conference earlier this week, said the party found 198 instances of duplication of names.

Other anomalies on the electoral list has also been discovered, he added.

“We have witness in some cases, attempts at voter padding,” Andall told reporters.

“I have concrete evidence of at least one person in the St Patrick West area, that person has never resided not even for a day in St Patrick West but in exchange for a government job, the person has made to switch her registration to another constituency.”

Andall confirmed that the NDC had yet to file a complaint with the Parliamentary Elections Office.