Press
Release
17
August 2001
With
an election due, at the very latest, by April 8 20002; unless the election
is held during the Christmas season when many of the students return home
for the holidays, many thousands of Bahamian students studying abroad will,
in effect, be disenfranchised. Most students cannot simply up and come
home at any time in order to vote.
We
call on the government to implement overseas balloting in the upcoming
general elections. In this way, those thousands of young Bahamians whose
future along with that of all Bahamians will be impacted by the selection
of the next government will have a voice in the election process.
Our
college bound students who have been raised in the information age have
their own perspective about the direction in which they would like the
Bahamas to move. We believe that it is our duty to ensure that their voices
are not lost at this critical point in our national development. Our students
abroad must be able to vote for the candidates and the political party
whose policies they believe will best represent their interests as the
inheritors of this country.
My
suggestion is that the government either allow for the mailing in of ballots
or, alternatively allow for the setting up of voting centres in the cities
with large populations of Bahamian students and/or large numbers of expatriate
Bahamian workers, i.e. Miami, New York, Atlanta, Toronto, London, Kingston,
etc.
The
actual details and any necessary legislation can be easily worked out.
However
the principle should be that all those who wish to vote should be able
to do so without having to undergo the expense and the interruption of
their studies or employment that flying home to the Bahamas would entail.
Michael
Brian Halkitis
Progressive
Liberal Party Candidate
Adelaide
Constituency
Nassau,
Bahamas