Al Suckoo, Jr. one of the leaders of the campaign backing the petition for “One Man, One Vote” launched by MLAs Ezzard Miller and Arden McLean said they are about to make history with their efforts to collect signatures from registered voters. They now have more than 3000 names on the official petition and anticipate that they will easily reach the 3,800 names required to trigger the national ballot well before the end of April

“I am extremely pleased with the response to the petition so far,” said Suckoo. “We are currently witnessing history in the making and I have no doubt that the end result will be the adoption of a political system that guarantees greater equality, accountability and voter participation. We still have a target to make and I encourage everyone to make sure they do not miss the opportunity to sign the petition. This petition is helping to preserve democracy and proper representation for all of our people.

“Aside from going door to door volunteers have also been collecting signatures at key public locations such as the local supermarkets and outside the post office in downtown George town several shops also have copies of petition books and there are dozens of people ready and able to go out and meet people who want to sign.”

Once they have the 3,800 signatures the petition will be handed over to Governor, H.E. Duncan Taylor. This magic number is needed under the constitution to trigger a people’s referendum.

Although Premier McKeeva Bush has already stated publicly that he will hold a referendum on the topic at the same time as the general election next year it will not be in November as is requested in the petition. The organisers have said they will continue collecting signatures even when the 3,800 target has been reached and are hoping they will be able to persuade the premier to introduce the one man, one vote system without the need for a referendum in time for the May 2013 elections.

Suckoo along with Marco Archer have been circulating a document outlining arguments for and against the one man, one vote that states:

Arguments against one man, one

vote:

(a)     will encourage  our representatives to become  even more  myopic;

(b)    further entrench the  rivalry between communities for the  allocation of scarce national resources  in providing public  services;

(c)      will destroy the party system; and

(d)     the cost to implement is unaffordable.

Arguments for one  man, one  vote:

(a)   it provides opportunities for  a higher level  of voter  satisfaction and better representation of a constituency;

(b)    the single  representative would  have  a much  smaller number of constituents  to   represent  and   allow   for   closer   attention to   the concerns  of constituents;

(c)      the  representative, their   needs,  and   better able  to    advocate  on  their behalf   in  the Legislative Assembly;

(d)     the  single  representative would  be  more   accountable than  under the  current system  of  multiple  representatives where  each  one  is able to shift  responsibility to another (the  ‘blame game’);

(e)      it has the  potential to raise the  calibre  of representatives in the  LA;

and

(f)    representatives will  be elected  based  on their  individual attributes, not the popularity of running mates.

The document concludes with what it says is “Fact”:

“It is not the  electoral system  that  destroys a country and erodes  investor confidence, rather, it  is  crime, corruption, social unrest  and mismanagement of the economy.”