Nomination Day today for SMS By-Election

Today is Nomination Day for candidates who want to contest in the By-Election for the St. Mary’s South constituency is scheduled for October 24.

The Supervisor of Elections (SOE), Ian Hughes, advised all potential candidates that the Nomination Centre is set up at Bolans Primary School.

Denese Parker, the Returning Officer, will preside over the nomination process.

To be nominated, each candidate must have a proposer and a seconder, both of whom must be registered voters in SMS.

In addition, the candidate must have eight other witnesses present at the event. Once the candidate completes the nomination process, he/she must sign a consent form and pay a $500 fee.

Today is the last day for people who want to have their names transferred to SMS. Those who had previously applied must visit the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission (ABEC) offices on the Queen Elizabeth Highway to complete the transfer process. The deadline for this is 10:00 a.m. on Monday.

The commission will commence training for the staff who will work in the polling booths on Election Day.

The training will be a refresher course for those who participated in the January 18 plebiscite and an introduction for those who are working in the electoral process for the first time.

The Revised Register for the constituency will be published on Tuesday. Copies of the register will be available for candidates and/or political parties.

The final list will be published later in the week after the staff of the commission cross-checks it for any omissions.

There are just over 2700 eligible voters in the By-Election.

Entities wishing to monitor/observe the by-elections, such as media houses, their representatives, and organizations like the Free and Fair Elections Group (F&FEG), must register their names by October 17.

F&FEG has already indicated in writing that it wishes to observe the by-election.

The SOE clarified that international observer groups receive invitations only for general elections, not by-elections.