A total of 8 291 names have been earmarked for removal from Barbados’ voters’ register as the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) enters the final stage of the most comprehensive clean-up of the list in more than 30 years.
Of these, 4 923 people have been identified as living overseas for more than five continuous years, while 3 368 have been confirmed as deceased, chairman of the EBC Ramon Alleyne, KC, announced yesterday during a press conference at Warrens Tower II.
Months-long exercise
He said the figures emerged after a monthslong enumeration and verification exercise, which began in August and saw enumerators and postal workers attempt to visit every household. The names will be published in the print media this weekend and next, and would simultaneously appear on the EBC’s website for public scrutiny.
“We want persons to check these lists and let us know if there are any mistakes,” Alleyne said.
“If your cousin is actually still in Barbados, or if your mother should still be on the register, this is your opportunity to tell us. We can only get it as clean as possible with the assistance of the population.”
Alleyne stressed that Barbados had not carried out a national enumeration in more than 30 years, leading to outdated addresses, mis-assigned polling districts and longstanding concerns about deceased individuals remaining on the list.
“This was the most intensive exercise in three decades. Our staff alone could not effectively cover the country, so we brought in postal workers who knew the areas well,” he said.
After enumeration ended in September, the commission opened registration centres and issued circulars to every household, urging people to verify their constituency and polling district information, particularly if they had moved. He underscored that no one would be removed simply because they did not see an enumerator.
“We are still asking persons who may not have seen an enumerator to go to the website and check their status. No one is being deleted because of that,” the EBC chairman said.
Website
The lists of the 8 291 names would remain on the EBC website and citizens would be given a defined period to contest any inaccuracies. Once this window closes, the removals would be finalised.
Alleyne said the effort was aimed at ensuring the commission met its statutory requirement to present a fully sanitised register by January 31.
“Once these deletions take place, we will meet our statutory obligation,” he said, noting that the voters’ list stood at roughly 260 000 individuals as of January 2025.
While the flagged names represent a small percentage of the list, he described the numbers as “still significant”.
The chairman acknowledged there was some hesitancy from members of the public, who feared scammers and fraudsters posing as officials.
“We tried to give our people proper identification and given today’s society, the hesitance is understandable,” Alleyne explained.
He praised the dedication of enumerators, postal workers and additional support staff who processed the large volume of data.
Alleyne declined to speculate on whether the clean-up could affect voter turnout analysis or constituency boundaries until all data is fully processed.
However, he stressed that updates to the register would continue right up to the next General Election.
“This process will continue going forward until whenever an election is called,” he said.
“Right up to election time, people will still have the opportunity to correct mistakes.” ( CLM)
The post Over 8 000 names to be cut from voters’ list appeared first on nationnews.com.
