Voter registration deadline for 2011 election looms
Alex Holder - BVI News Staff Reporter - Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Supervisor of Elections Juliette Penn
Eligible voters are being encouraged to take advantage of the continuous registration process, as they could likely be allowed only two weeks to register after the House of Assembly (HOA) is dissolved.
This deadline period has been the norm for some time, but could change this year.
Constitutionally, the HOA has to be dissolved on or before September 14, 2011.
Supervisor of Elections Juliette Penn, told BVI News Online that up to this time her office could not say when the first draft of the voters’ list would be available, adding that, “all of that depends on the dissolution of the House.”
The announcement of the deadline for voter registration also depends on the HOA’s dissolution.
“Continuous voter registration is still in effect, but the cut off point for the registration of voters for this election has been in the past 14 days after dissolution of the house. Persons who come in after would not meet this election, they would go on to the next election,” Penn explained.
She said although it has been customary to place the registration deadline at 14 days after the HOA’s dissolution, she could not say for sure whether that would be repeated this year since there are certain legal amendments to the elections bill that could affect this common procedure if passed.
“Those dates would be announced as soon as the house is dissolved and we can give some more information,” Penn added.
Regarding the failed attempt to introduce Voters’ Identification Cards, Penn said the idea could be reintroduced following this year’s elections.
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