As we reported yesterday (14), East End and North Side MLA’s Arden McLean and Ezzard Miller launched their campaign at a public meeting in East End for “one man, one vote”. The meeting was held in the parking lot of ‘D’s Grocery Store’.

At the meeting Mr. McLean said he was not prepared to tolerate a policy that would see voters in George Town given six votes and enabling them to influence the make-up of government six times more than his own constituents, because “it was not democratic.” At present George Town voters get four votes and both East End and North Side voters get only one. So, in their Districts their constituents already and will forever (unless the population dramatically increases) get one man, one vote!

Mr. Miller has already submitted a motion to the LA to change the elections law but government rejected this. His further attempts to bring further motions on the matter were blocked by the Speaker. One must congratulate Mr. Miller on his tenacity – he doesn’t give up easily. With Mr. McLean at his side he hopes to establish the one man, one vote principle via the constitution.

So what does ‘one man, one vote’ actually mean? It is exactly what it says and the phrase was traditionally used in the UK for suffrage reform – the “civil right to vote”. Suffrage describes not only the legal right to vote, but also the practical question of whether a question will be put to a vote. The utility of suffrage is reduced when elected or unelected representatives decide important questions unilaterally. The principal of one man, one vote was used in an important legal authority in the USA – the Supreme Court majority opinion in Reynolds v. Sims, issued in 1964. The ruling was that state legislature districts had to be roughly equal in population.

“Roughly equal in population.” And that is what was proposed here by the UK. Our districts would be divided up into parts roughly equal in population so that you would have one vote cast to only one of the candidates standing. It would be therefore more difficult for the present system of block party voting where some of the districts (George Town and West Bay) have at present four votes per constituent. As Mr. Mclean said, “ The government has chosen the least popular option [the present system]for the next election because the premier believes that he can stay in power under this system.”

The two MLA’s have launched a petition demanding government to initiate a referendum to force the hand of the present government to change the voting system before the next election.

I can only wonder where the PPM leader, Hon. Alden McLaughlin stands on this issue? Perhaps he is playing the ‘waiting game’ to test the temperature of the water. But, doesn’t a leader by definition, LEAD?