As a Member of Parliament, it is my considered view that the constitutional mandate given to the EC must be exercised in a fair and reasonable manner as to facilitate and not frustrate citizens’ right to vote. In this vein, the Electoral Commission, in the execution of its mandate ought to have a reasonable contemplation of the peculiar challenges of constituencies such as AFRAM PLAINS in the upcoming voter registration exercise and not apply a one-size-fits-all in its approach.

What is more surprising is that the EC in previous elections used helicopters to distribute election materials in these hard-to-reach island communities in the constituency.

The Commission is therefore fully aware of the challenges and how citizens will be adversely affected if the registration is carried out in the manner that the Commission has proposed.
However, if for any reason the Commission is constrained by lack of human and logistical resources, the proper thing to do is to come to Parliament and make a justification for resources to do its work.

I will be the first MP to advocate that the Commission should be provided with the needed resources to perform its constitutional mandate.