COMMENTS SHARED BY A WISE FRIEND RE: VOTERS REGISTER WITH NO LEGAL ADDRESS

“I am not surprised that this is so.

How can it be that when Haitians apply for Citizenship (as evidenced by the Notices seen in the Newspapers weekly), the Ads… describe their addresses as being of “Carmichael Road or P.O.Box (a number)” and this is acceptable to our Authorities?

Carmichael Road is several miles long – just where on Carmichael Road can these applicants be found? As for them having the only address as a P.O.Box – this is ludicrous! What sensible and responsible Government Authority allows this in 2012?

How is the public reading one of these Notices supposed to know who is being described in an Ad that is 2″ X 3 1/2″ stating only a name a street or a P.O.Box No.? Do you think that you can go and apply for Citizenship or Residency in any Country in the Caribbean or in the World for that matter and give only a P.O.Box No. as your address?

When I lived in the Cayman Islands in 1988, any application advertised for Residency featured a photograph of the applicant, along with complete details of his/her address.

There must be a reason why this practice has continued. What happens if a member of the public puts in an objection?

In 1988, the Caymanian Government put out a Notice that it was suspending the consideration and approval of all applications for work permits from Jamaican nationals. The reason given was that their presence of Jamaicans in large numbers might be seen to contribute to a “distortion of the social fabric of the Country” – shouldn’t we have put out such a Notice 25 years ago with respect to Haitians?

How is it that the requirements for Citizenship or Permanent Residency in the Bahamas requires an applicant from every Country in the world to produce evidence of financial capability, character references, police records, place of birth evidence, that they purchase of a home costing no less than $400,000.00 and all a Haitian has to do is to sneak into the Bahamas, have children, hide and live in a P. O. Box to gain approval? Is this discrimination or what?

What does the International Authorities have to say about this? Why are we overloading the Bahamas with a disproportionate amount of Haitians as compared to other nationals? Why is it that we see so few applications for Citizenship advertised on behalf of other nationalities? Are we not being seen as a desirable locale by the rest of the world?

As the Bahamas Press article shows us – How did the Parliamentary Registrar’s Office accept the registration of people without proper house addresses, especially since most houses in Nassau have two(2) numbers today – (1) the well-established original number and (2)new blue and white numbers put on by some Governmental agency, the purpose of which has not been explained to the public.

Again as alluded to in the B.P. article – Great confusion can come about when the Voters List is published by the Parliamentary Registrar if proper house numbers and streets have not been assigned to voters in every constituency. What can protect the fairness of the Voters List from the mischief of voters who arbirtrarily register several times and in different constituencies?

If my house was renumbered AFTER I had registered, which address does the Parliamentary Registrar require? Answers anyone?”