Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir turned down yet another Opposition motion this morning.  The House Speaker refused to entertain a motion by Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton, which sought to address the need for a clean voters list and safeguards to avoid voter impersonation.

“Mr. Speaker, you are aware that every observer that observe the 2020 elections suggested the need for a clean voters list. In fact, CARICOM did say at the earliest opportunity, it should be dealt with,” the Opposition Leader told the Speaker in introducing his motion.

Norton said the motion recognizes the Chief Justice’s decision as it relates to removing persons from the list.

The Opposition Leader’s motion was proposing the enactment of new legislation to deal with the question of cleansing the voters list which he maintains is terribly flawed.

“Mr. Speaker if one look at the emerging voters list, you will see out of a population of 750,000 people, 682,000 persons are on that list and therefore that suggest that it cannot be a credible list. Mr. Speaker as well, if one looks just as well at the United States homeland security in  the last 4-5 years, more than 54,000 people would have migrate and so it should be obvious to most that, the list has to be cleaned,” Norton told the house.

In response, the Speaker said the matter does not qualify as one of definite urgent importance.

“I consider this motion at this time not of the urgency that requires this debate. So I would be unable to allow this motion to proceed further than this,” the Speaker said.

The Opposition has long argued that the Official List of Electors is bloated and must be cleansed.

While in Opposition, the governing PPP also had a similar position.

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