OT 330: Submission from Geoff Parker Sr., President
and Co-Chairman of the Voters' Rights Association,
Security and good governance of the
We humbly take this opportunity to make the submission below for your review and action.
On January 29th, 2008 we submitted a major
report on the state of
A key recommendation for
"We
recommend that the Government set out its response to this Report the steps it
has taken to ensure that allegations of corruption at the Bermuda Housing
Corporation, in the issuing of contracts, and of electoral fraud in
The Voters' Rights Association had adjudged that voter irregularities were more than likely going to take place at the last election because of a mass mailing by the VRA that showed high percentages of people registered to vote were living outside of their voting districts. Although we brought this to the attention of Government House in written form, in advance of the last General Election, we never received the courtesy of a response much less any action to correct the procedure to bring about a fair and honest election. We estimated that at least 10% to 13% of the population voted in the wrong districts which severely skewed the result in the Government's favour. In two instances, where the Opposition had basically safe seats, the Government was seen to move people into temporary quarters in those districts in time for the election. In one voting station it was reported to us that legal challenges were denied. The election process in our view is easy to manipulate and an inquiry into the process would bring an end to any speculation and bring about a fair and equitable process to gain the correct results through an Independent Election Commission placed under the Bermuda Constitution.
We see that the UK Government did act in the last week in taking back control of the Turks & Caicos Islands [T&C] because of an inquiry that showed clearly the depth of corruption that was entrenched there. It should be noted, as part of the T&C defense, that they were apparently inspired by the political and personal actions of the Ministers of the Bermuda Government.
The Auditor General of
To make matters worse, the Government is pressing ahead with its legislation to raise the debt ceiling to a Billion dollars. Just a few years ago the debt ceiling was only a few hundred million and our ratings were always excellent by those that regulate. The general population is concerned that this extra available money will be misspent as has many millions unaccounted for over the past years. We cannot continue to mortgage our children's future.
Honourable Members of the House of Commons, Bermudians have had enough. We are not a violent people and are easy to forgive and let live when honest mistakes take place. However, Bermudians are now being pushed to their limits with the heavy burden of recession upon them and with Government spending escalating without any serious controls or independent checks and balances we are reaching the end of our rope.
We believe that it is incumbent upon you to
at least establish a full inquiry into the apparent corruption and electoral
fraud issues as recommended in the FAC Report of the House of Commons. We would prefer a full Royal Commission
Inquiry, with the widest possible powers, to bring about a new beginning for
It's time for action now, not political
gamesmanship or hoping that these concerning problems will go away, because
they will not. We pray that our small
voice of 500 members of the Voters' Rights Association and our many thousands
of quiet supporters will stir some interest in
18 March 2009 |