By Tahna Weston
The Leader of the Opposition’s representative to the Constituencies Boundaries Commission says updated census statistics will be very vital in aiding the Commission to effectively do its work.
Leon “Chaku” Symister, an attorney-at-law who has been a member of the body in the past, said without updated information about the country’s population and other demographics, the Commission’s work would be futile.
Symister received his instruments of appointment to the Commission on January 23 during a brief ceremony at Government House.
“The Constituencies Boundaries Guidance Act tells you how the Commission should operate in making sure that constituencies are as even as humanly possible. You must consider the number of persons living in the constituency, not the number of persons on the voter’s list. And, the only way you can do that is get the most recent and reliable census, which we know is the taking of the population and where they are in doing that.
“Without that, the Commission cannot make any recommendation that has any real legitimacy. And so, one would have believed that since 2021 — the last census was 2011 — we needed one in 2021 but we often say Covid came so we understood that. But [the 2025 census] is not completed yet; it’s not even midway,” Symister said.
However, the Statistics Division, under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance, said plans are progressing for conducting the Population and Housing Census.
It is currently readying itself to conduct the Mapping and Listing Exercise which forms part of the pre-enumeration activities for the Census.
“So, it’s nice to say we have a Commission and certainly there are things that the Commission can do before it has the census figures. For example … the Guidance Act says keep these communities as close as possible in redrawing lines and I tell you redrawing lines is nothing new in democratic societies,” Symister noted.
Past Boundaries Commissioners were unable to make recommendations in order to bring about much needed voter parity because of outdated census data, he added.
“And so, the second Commission on which your humble servant was able to serve on, the Statistics Department said the census that we have is from 2011 [and] this is 2021 we cannot rely on that, too much has changed and so that commission sent a report to Parliament saying we cannot recommend any changes because we don’t have the census figures in order to rely on.
“Now, remember that report went in in 2022, nothing still happened, and now another commission… and if the prime minister decides to call an early election before enough time is being given, we are going to end up the same place, no recommendation,” Symister concluded.
The actual census enumeration is set to take place later this year.