Ali­cia Llanos

Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la has seen the largest growth in reg­is­tered elec­tors for Mon­day's gen­er­al elec­tion. The Cu­mu­to/Man­zanil­la elec­torate has grown by ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2,350 vot­ers, from 24,546 in 2007 to 26,896 in 2010. The sec­ond largest growth in elec­torate was in D'Abadie/O'Meara where the elec­torate grew by ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2,344 vot­ers, from 23,662 in 2007 to 26,006 in 2010. The third largest growth in elec­torate was in Cou­va South where the elec­torate grew by ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2,313 vot­ers, from 25,087 in 2007 to 27,400 in 2010.

Through care­ful analy­sis of the to­tal elec­torate by con­stituen­cy for 2010, com­pared to that of 2007, it was con­clud­ed that on av­er­age the elec­torate grew by about 100 vot­ers, ex­clud­ing the new­ly-formed con­stituen­cies of Morgua/Table­land and Prince Town and Pointe-a-Pierre, where the elec­torate dropped. Pointe-a-Pierre was the on­ly con­stituen­cy that saw a drop in the elec­torate. The elec­torate in Pointe-a-Pierre dropped by 611 vot­ers from 24,113 in 2007 to 23,502 in 2010. The Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sions, to deal with the two new con­stituen­cies and the in­creased elec­torate, added nine ad­di­tion­al polling di­vi­sions, from 1,463 in 2007 to 1,472 in 2010.

Speak­ing in a phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, ECB com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er Leslie Fitz­patrick said de­spite the high rise in reg­is­tered vot­ers, the ECB was pre­pared to en­sure the vote-cast­ing process ran smooth­ly. Fitz­patrick said the ECB had hired an ad­di­tion­al 11,000 mem­bers of staff, which in­cludes elec­tion of­fi­cers, to en­sure an ef­fi­cient sys­tem of bal­lot-cast­ing. He said all polling sta­tions would be well manned and any acts of thug­gery or vot­er in­tim­i­da­tion that may take place in the polling sta­tion would be han­dled by the po­lice. Fitz­patrick said such acts rarely oc­curred in polling sta­tions and as such was not an an­tic­i­pat­ed threat. When asked about con­cerns of vot­er ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties, he said all com­plaints by the pub­lic and po­lit­i­cal par­ties had been tak­en in­to ac­count. Fitz­patrick said de­spite the large elec­torate the EBC was well equipped and pre­pared to en­sure Mon­day's vot­ing process was ef­fi­cient, safe and free.