Supervisor confirms election office is open for business

| 10/08/2011

(CNS): Following queries by potential voters who were not able to register at the elections office due to unscheduled closures the supervisor of elections has confirmed that the office is now operating under normal hours. Kearney Gomez has also revealed that although he is still in post as the supervisor, the governor is in the process of recruiting a new management team for the office. During finance committee in June the deputy governor had dodge questions from the legislative members regarding Gomez’s position which was left unclear.

However, Gomez told CNS via email that he was still in post at present. “The Governor has confirmed that I will continue to remain the Supervisor of Elections until such time as a successor is appointed,” Gomez wrote. “The Governor is currently considering proposals for succession planning with regard to the Supervisor and the Deputy Supervisors of Elections and will make his views known once he has made a decision in this regard. He is keen to ensure that there is a strong and experienced supervisory team in place for the next Elections.”

Gomez also said that the review of the register would be back on a three month cycle in October which was the next appointed date for the new lists. The elections register is required under the law to o be reviewedand signed off by a magistrate every three months. However, when magistrate Grace Donalds who had traditionally undertaken that task was retired there was no one to sign off which meant the register had not been properly reviewed.

During finance committee Donovan Ebanks explained there had been a lapse in the period. “The law calls for the list to be revised every three months. That hasn’t happened. There was a period during which we were without a revising officer as prescribed by law, which is a magistrate of the court. We have recently gotten a nomination from the court and so the revisions will be brought up to date and current,” he told the committee which explained why there had been a lapse in the registration of electors.

Staff levels had also been reviewed officials said nothing that between elections there was no need to have three full time staff members and as a result the office was now being manned by just two people but the office is open for people wishing to join the voter’s list.
 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Category: Local News

About the Author ()

Comments (15)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    What, all three employees forgot to go to work?

  2. Anonymous says:

    I LOVE THE HEADLINE!  Open for business indeed. 

  3. noname says:

    Thanks for the warning.  Now go back to sleep.

  4. Rights said Fred says:

    Will they be registering all UK nationals or will their right to vote in elections guaranteed under the ECHR be infringed?  Will the cash strapped UK government be willing to pay compensation when the going rate for denial of voting rights is about $2,000 per person per election?  I reckon the UK would much rather alter the law to conform with rights obligations than have to pay few million in compensation.

  5. Anonymous says:

    How many salaries is that? PLUS paid a pension alongside of those? And all of this money for what again – not having your responsibilities up to date. Well played Sir, it seems I was the fool…

  6. Anonymous says:

    I don't see us being able to hold elections until at least 3 years AFTER Turks and Caicos have theirs.

  7. Anonymous says:

    I na voting til I get mi house fixed, no no missa Gomez.

     

  8. Anonymous says:

    Come on, Kearney, you're 60 plus and need to make way for others, even though for years you have made it clear no-one knows as much about elections as you. Also, please realise your elections office has run for years 365 days a year providing money for your carefully selected staff with bugger all to do most of the time (elections every 4 years!!!) until you all were "rumbled" by the financial crisis and civil service review teams who reaiised it was a desperate waste of funds, including the awesome pensionable allowance you were paid on top of your huge Chief officer salary. Time to hang up the cowboy boots, Bobo.

    • Anonymous says:

      And dat is his claime to fame. So let me see if I understand this. He is being paid a whopping Chief Officers salary plus  a salrary for being Soup of Elections, lets hope the election part time job is not pensionable too. no wonder he dont want to go and tend to his cows and horses fulltime when is this dinosaur going

      And government dont have any money eh

      • Anonymous says:

        Anon 14:53. Plus he is getting a pension based on two thirds of his salary added to his allowance for being the superintendent of elections. He is doing nothing wrong. It is just ah so it go for the snouts in the trough.

    • Anonymous says:

      Would you want to go with these kind of benefits?  LOL ROFL

    • Anonymous says:

      Why is he being kept on past 60 when there are obviously many more capable and qualified people in Civil Service, if a true audit was done of the skills and capabilities ofsuch personnel?

      Some people have no conscience do they.

       

    • Anonymous says:

      Typical government succession planning "even though for years you have made it clear no-one knows as much about elections as you ".

      Why do we the people allow such travesties in our public sector, where people are made to believe they are indispensable and obviously refuse to groom successors ?