Electoral boundaries to remain unchanged for 2025 elections |23 January 2024
The Electoral Commission team in a souvenir photograph with President Ramkalawan after presenting the report
Electoral boundaries are to remain unchanged for the 2025 elections, the Electoral Commission announced yesterday.
Chairperson of the commission, Danny Lucas, was yesterday joined by Chief Electoral Officer Manuella Amesbury and Commissioner Wendy Didon in presenting the commission鈥檚 report to President Wavel Ramkalawan.
Mr Lucas explained that for the delimitation exercise, the commission is prioritising consultations with the public, political parties and civil society, among other stakeholders, towards being as transparent as possible.
In preparation for the exercise, the commission ensured that its social media platform and website is up and running, for members of the public to provide their feedback, prior to the final decision being made as to the propositions to be presented to the President and National Assembly.
鈥淭he first phase of the exercise, whereby we established a delimitation committee for the technical works, is now finished,鈥� Mr Lucas stated, thanking all involved.
From the first phase of the exercise, the commission now has a number of proposals which the committee feel is necessary to address the disparities between electoral areas. One of the disparities is the number of voters registered in the Anse Etoile district, in comparison to other areas such as Port Glaud, and Roche Caiman whereby the number of voters are extremely low.
The commission had planned a series of consultations with all stakeholders, including members of the National Assembly, district authorities and leaders of religious denominations, as of December 5, 2023 but was unable to do so, due to the December 6 and 7 calamities.
Gaining feedback is important prior to the commission making its final recommendations, Mr Lucas noted.
As per the Constitution, the commission is obliged to submit a report every three years, and yesterday marked exactly three years since the last report submission.
鈥淲e do not want to rush. It is within our authority to wave aside consultations due to the incidents, since the Constitution allows us to do so,鈥� Mr Lucas said.
鈥淏ut, we want to do it in a way that the population is also included in the decision. This is why we decided as a commission that we will not make any proposals for changes to the President, even if there would have been major changes across all districts,鈥� Mr Lucas added.
The commission will forge ahead with consultations, and will present its recommendations from the electoral boundary delimitation exercise in its next report, in 2027.
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Laura Pillay
Photo by Joena Meme