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Sticking points remain in diaspora’s push for right to vote

Published:Tuesday | June 14, 2022 | 12:12 AM

Jamaicans who live overseas and return home to vote in national elections could be breaching the Representation of the People Act (ROPA). But even as legislators mull over giving expatriates the right to vote, one senior Cabinet minister is urging...

Jamaicans who live overseas and return home to vote in national elections could be breaching the Representation of the People Act (ROPA). But even as legislators mull over giving expatriates the right to vote, one senior Cabinet minister is urging caution, noting that by their sheer numbers, the diaspora could overturn the will of locals.

The issue could come up for discussion yet again as the 9th biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference gets under way today and ends on Thursday.

The Second Schedule of the ROPA notes that to vote in local elections, a person should be at least 18 years old and a citizen of Jamaica who is ordinarily resident in the country.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck admits that many Jamaicans living abroad remain on the voters’ list and have returned home to exercise their franchise in national elections.

“There are many who do and give their address as their family member’s and there are others who have not taken their names off the voters’ list,” he said in a Gleaner interview. “If you ask me, you have 1.9 million people on the voters’ list, I am willing to bet you that at least 100,000 of them who have migrated, their names are still on the voters’ list.”

Director of Elections Glasspole Brown gave credence to Chuck’s assertions.

“It happens in the sense that they got registered when they resided in Jamaica and, therefore, they remain on the list. So because they remain on the list, therefore, they would normally take part in an election,” he said.

Against the law

But attorney-at-law Michael Hylton, QC, believes such a practice runs counter to the ROPA.

“If it says ‘ordinarily resident’ and a Jamaican who lives in England comes home to vote, they would be breaching the law,” Hylton declared, noting that the process of updating of the voters’ list was meant to verify and update addresses first given when an elector is initially registered.

Edmund Bartlett, leader of government business in the House of Representatives, noted that talks of giving expatriates the right to vote were interesting and could broaden democracy by embracing Jamaicans in the diaspora.

He indicated that the Government has been contemplating this matter for a while.

“I think we have been looking at how best to enable that enrichment of our local process because these Jamaicans have continued to maintain their roots here, and continue to be contributors to the development process, and it is fair that they have a contribution that can be made in the enriching of our Parliament and our legislative arrangements,” he said, but noted that the ROPA would have to be amended to facilitate this process.

The senior Cabinet minister, however, said there was a difficulty, noting that there were probably more Jamaicans abroad than resident in the country.

“So you could end up, if you are not careful, if you were to give the franchise to Jamaicans overseas, that they could overturn the will of the local people who are living here by sheer numbers,” he noted.

Bartlett said a mechanism would have to be found as to how it could be done, “whether or not you create blocs and then you have a representation from each bloc and you look at the Senate to see how you infuse them in a perhaps a reformed Senate, which could embrace not just your local people, but your Jamaicans abroad”.

He said that Constitutional Affairs Minister Marlene Malahoo Forte “will no doubt be munching on matters like these”.

Phillip Paulwell, the member of parliament (MP) for Kingston Eastern and Port Royal, said the issue is also under active consideration by the opposition People’s National Party “and because of that, I wouldn’t, at this stage, want to pronounce on it”.

Paulwell said his mind is open to the idea, but notes that some important constitutional issues would have to be sorted out.

“I am going to await that debate in our party for a final position,” he said.

Brown, the electoral boss, said that an amended ROPA would have to address the constituency to which persons from the diaspora are assigned to vote, noting that the law now stipulates that electors must vote in the constituencies in which they reside.

Hylton said that the kind of vote required by lawmakers to make such a ROPA amendment would depend on what, if any, constitutional provision it affected.

“If it affects a constitutional provision, then you would need to enact it with the majority that would be needed to make that change.”

However, Hylton cautioned that while some countries allow their expatriates to vote in national elections, Jamaica has a unique situation in which there are more Jamaicans abroad claiming to be citizens than any other country.

“Creating that right in Jamaica would certainly put another million or two million people on the voters’ list,” he said.

He argued that there was a reason why people must live in Jamaica to vote as they are voting for the MP in the constituency in which they reside.

Several countries around the world, including a few in the Commonwealth, give their expatriates the right to vote in elections in the jurisdictions from which they were born or had their citizenship.

The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Brazil, and Costa Rica are among countries that extend the franchise to expatriates.

editorial@gleanerjm.com