PM Browne to investigate increase voter registration in St Peter

As early as this week, an investigation is expected to be launched into what Prime Minister Gaston Browne has said is a suspected increase in voter registration in St Peter.

There have been claims that MP Asot Micheal was involved in transferring hundreds of voters into St Peter, in an attempt to improve his chances at the polls.

Micheal won that constituency on an independent ticket after a fallout with the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party.

Browne said there was an unusual increase in registration in St Peter months leading up to the general elections, so much so that the matter was brought before the Cabinet in September.

He said the ABLP’s candidate for St Peter Rawdon Turner also complained regularly about what was happening in the “battlefield” constituency.

“I have to admit that there is at least one constituency in which the process was compromised so that the Labour Party scrutineer had to be moved eventually. We may have to have an investigation,” Browne said

The Opposition United Progressive Party has accused the prime minister of vote padding in his constituency following remarks he made recently.

“We would have indicated that the process in St Peter was compromised. We indicated publicly that there was a problem in St Peter. For about a year we have had reports that the process in St Peter was compromised and people from outside the constituency were being registered. Former Cabinet minister Dean Jonas reported to the Cabinet that a number of his constituency were paid to transfer to St Peter,” Browne said.

Asot Micheal told a local media house that he intends to respond to the matter later this week.