Professor Errol Miller (right), chairman of the Electoral Advisory Committee, makes a point during yesterday's press briefing at the committee's Old Hope Road office in Kingston. At left is Danville Walker, the director of elections, while Dorothy Pine-McClarty (centre), an independent member of the EAC, is partially hidden. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

THE Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) has recommended that the total number of electoral constituencies be increased to an odd number before the next general elections, and eventually hiked to 65 on a phased basis, to avoid the chance of a dead heat in future elections.

According to EAC chairman, Professor Errol Miller, the committee will officially make its recommendation to Parliament's Electoral Boundaries Committee next Tuesday.

"We will give our advice to them next week Tuesday, after the publication of the November 30 (voters') list," Miller said at a news briefing yesterday.

He added that the decision, which was in response to a letter from the parliamentary committee asking for advice on the matter of electoral boundaries, was taken at the EAC's recent retreat.

The parliamentary committee, Miller said, had also asked for the EAC's opinion on the question of the increase in the number of constituencies. This will require constitutional changes as, at the moment, the constitution prescribes 60 constituencies at the upper limit.

"We have been asked and, in our opinion, it should be changed and we will be advising to the effect that the constitution should be amended to allow the number of constituencies to be an odd number and that the upper limit be raised to an odd number, preferably 65," Miller said.

"This does not mean that we have to immediately have 65 constituencies, but it could be raised, at the appropriate time, to 61, 63 or 65," he added.

Concerns about a possible deadlocked election were raised here in December 2001 after the parliamentary poll in Trinidad and Tobago ended in an 18-18 tie that threw the twin-island republic into a political crisis.

The deadlock sparked frequent quarrels between Patrick Manning's People's National Movement (PNM) and the United National Congress, led by Basdeo Panday, particularly after the country's president, ANR Robinson, acting on agreement between both parties to name a winner, declared the election for PNM.

The dispute was eventually settled in October last year after the PNM won 20 seats to the UNC's 16 in fresh elections.

Yesterday, there was no indication from the EAC members as to what parishes could be immediately affected by boundary changes. Speaking to the Observer after the briefing, Professor Miller explained that the constitution defined that whenever a voters' list is done, the number of voters has to be divided by the number of constituencies and an average arrived at. The size of each constituency should not be less than two-thirds of the average, at the bottom, or 150 per cent of the average, at the top.

There has been speculation over the years that Kingston could lose one of its three constituencies because of its dwindling population, but the EAC chairman said he had no evidence of this. He said that every time a voters' list is done, the calculation has to be done to find the five constituencies closest to the lower limit and the five which are closest to the upper limit.

He said, however, that in the last three years since he has been chairing the EAC, "we have never had a situation where a constituency has either breached the upper or lower limit". Miller admitted, however, that there were some constituencies which were consistently low, while some were consistently high, but all were in the prescribed number.

For example, South St Catherine, which includes areas like Greater Portmore, missed breaching the upper limit by just one vote in the November list, Miller said.

The constitution also prescribes that no parish should have less than two constituencies. Four parishes -- Hanover, Portland, St Thomas and Trelawny -- currently have two seats each and each stands the chance of benefiting from an additional seat under the new proposals. St Catherine, with its fast expanding Portmore corridor, seems the parish most likely to pick up more than one new seat.

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