By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net 

THOUSANDS of people cast their vote in the advanced polls yesterday, one week before in the highly anticipated gambling referendum.

According to Acting Parliamentary Commissioner Sherlyn Hall, 6,519  persons registered for the advance polls. However, up to press time last night, he could not provide a total number of those that voted in that advance poll because the Parliamentary Registration Department were still waiting on numbers from Freeport, Grand Bahama and other Family Islands.

Mr Hall said the voting process, at both the College of the Bahamas and the Kendall G L Issacs Gymnasium was for the most part smooth.

“We are pleased with the way things went. The process with a good one, we had little problems.“We got one or two complaints about people who said they registered to vote in the advance polls but their names weren’t on the register when they got to the stations, but there could be two reasons for that.

“Either the forms did not get there in time or there

was a human or computer error.”

“You have to remember this is a massive undertaking and all the names have to be imputed manually, but besides that things went smoothly,” he said.

“Those who voted were people like me, poll workers, police officers, parliamentarians and those who for one reason or another would not be able to participate on Monday.

“It well went, the process was smooth and the next step is to gear up for Monday and we are prepared for that.”

Mr Hall also dismissed rumours that voters currently overseas could not participate in the advanced polls because it was a holiday in the Unites States and embassies were closed. He said: “That is only partially true. Yes, the US embassies are closed but our embassies remained open so those overseas who registered were able to vote. We got responses from Miami and New York but none in Washington and none in Atlanta.”

The Tribune received numerous reports that persons were being paid for their ‘yes’ vote, however Mr Hall said he had received no reports and dismissed the suggestion as a malicious rumour.“I have not heard anything like that officially,” he said. “I have had no reports of voter buying. We are honest people. Do not listen to the naysayers. We have no evidence or proof that this is happening, just rumours.”

Donald Cash, a returning officer at the Kendal G L Issacs Gymnasium said the process was “good” from the moment the polls opened at 8am until they closed at 6pm.

“We had no challenges, we were able to start on time. The process started from 7.30am where we opened the ballot box and we reconciled all of the records in the box.

“The polls opened promptly at both sites at 8am, at the beginning of the day the voter turnout was pretty slow but as the day progressed the number of voters continued to increase and here in the gym we have about 17 constituencies represented including MICAL from southern Bahamas and North Abaco.”

Mr Hall said the ballots will be sealed and brought to him for safekeeping until next week, when they will be counted with the votes on Monday.