By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement MP Shanendon Cartwright said the Boundaries Commission did not meet the August deadline for its report because it is still waiting on voter maps and registration figures from the Parliamentary Registration Department.

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper previously said the commission hoped to submit its report to the Prime Minister by August.

Mr Cartwright, who sits on the body, said while commissioners have met to discuss broad issues, the technical information needed for recommendations has not been provided.

“We were slated to meet a couple of weeks back, but I know there’s been some changes to that,” he said. “There would have been requests from the Parliamentary Registration Department, all of the requisite documentations that are typically needed, in terms of constituency maps and voter registration numbers. That’s what we’re waiting on.”

“From the opposition standpoint, we continue to look forward to giving our view on possible modifications and changes to boundaries where it is justified,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want to be sure that the Bahamian people throughout the Commonwealth are adequately represented.”

Voter registration figures as of mid-June showed Golden Isles with 7,524 registered voters and Killarney with 7,082 — the highest numbers in the country — adding pressure for boundary reviews to satisfy constitutional requirements for parity.

“There’s no doubt that in Golden Isles and in Killarney you have some 7,500 plus voters, or 7,000 plus voters,” Mr Cartwright said. “Even if you were averaging 4,500 per constituency, there is no doubt that the possibility of an additional seat in between those two is something that ought to be looked at. In the last boundaries report, which would have been 2021, that recommendation was made. So it isn’t anything new.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis, while in opposition, said he supported changes to Golden Isles and Killarney to improve fairness, though not necessarily by creating new constituencies. In July, as Prime Minister, he repeated that view, noting voter numbers in “one or two” New Providence constituencies were out of balance and needed an “anxious look.”