Electoral team ready for Barbuda Council and by-elections

The returning officer assigned to oversee and monitor the Barbuda Council elections and a by-election, which is scheduled to run concurrently on the sister island today, has guaranteed that the process will be handled efficiently.
Vernest Mack said her team has been adequately trained and will facilitate a smooth voting process.
Residents on Barbuda must vote to determine the fate of five of nine elected seats on the council according to a biennial schedule, while the  sixth seat is up for grabs due to the resignation of a council member.
Mack told OBSERVER media the two exercises will be handled differently.
“We will be using a different colour ballot for each exercise. We will have two different voting areas in each station. One area will say vote for only one person for the by-election and the other one will say vote for any five persons for the Council elections,” she explained.
The voting process will be conducted at the Holy Trinity School in Barbuda.
Mack said a presding officer will manage each polling station, accompanied by two poll clerks. Additional clerks will be on hand to assist if necessary, Mack said.
The five candidates contesting on behalf of the ruling Antigua Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) are incumbents David Shaw and Calvin Gore, along with newcomers Makiesha DeSouza, Neil “Jala” Gore and Senator Knacynta Nedd.
The contenders for the opposition Barbuda People’s Movement (BPM) are newcomers Kendra Beazer and Jackie Frank. The other candidates are Nadia John George, Fabian Jones and Wayde Burton.
In the by-election, former Miss Antigua & Barbuda and BPM member, Asha Frank, will go up against ABLP’s representative Andrae Lee in a bid to fill the seat vacated by BPM’s Saliem Cephas.
Cephas’ seat was declared vacant after he left Barbuda to attend university. Under the Barbuda Local Government Act CAP 44 the seat of a member is declared vacant after the member misses three consecutive Council meetings without leave of the chairman.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)