Name change for constituency

ASHTON FORD

THE TIME has come for the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to review the names of constituencies for the House of Representatives and electoral districts in the local government bodies.

I make specific reference to the D’Abadie/O’Meara constituency and the electoral district of Calvary in the Arima Borough Corporation.

In the case of D’Abadie/O’Meara, I wrote the EBC in my capacity as general secretary of the People’s National Movement (PNM), with the approval of the general council, requesting a change of name for the constituency.

The letter, dated April 7, 2014, was addressed to then chairman Dr Nobert Masson, entitled “Re: Changes to Constituency Names D’Abadie/O’Meara and Mayaro.”

I am dealing specifically with D’Abadie/O’Meara where I stated:

“With respect to D’Abadie/O’Meara, the constituency has an electorate of 27,964 (July 2013) who lives in the constituency’s 32 polling divisions.

“These polling divisions cut across several communities including but not limited to Carapo, Mausica, D’Abadie, Samaroo Village, Malabar, O’Meara Road and Tumpuna Road. From these communities the commission determined that the most appropriate name for the constituency was D’Abadie/O’Meara.

“In our review of the distribution of electors throughout the constituency we have determined that 30 per cent of the electors live in Malabar, 31 per cent live in D’Abadie and roughly 11 per cent live in O’Meara.

“In our assessment the polling divisions that fall in the Malabar area include 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1978 and 1983. These polling divisions account for 8,430 registered voters while the community of O’Meara consists of just four intersecting polling divisions with a registered voter count of fewer than 3,000 electors.”

I received a reply from Ramesh Nanan, then chief elections officer of the EBC, which indicated that the commission would review the names of all constituencies in Trinidad.

I am certain that there would have been some changes in the numbers that will undoubtedly increase the electors in all polling divisions.

It is against this background that I humbly suggest that the EBC considers changing the name of the constituency from D’Abadie/O’Meara to Arima South/D’Abadie, which would reflect a true picture of the constituency that captures all the communities that carry Arima in their address, including government offices that are located on O’Meara Road.

The name suggested, Arima/D’Abadie, also includes four electoral districts in the Arima Borough Council instead of the constituency having a name after a road.

In the case of the electoral districts in the Arima Borough Corporation, only one area poses a problem for electors and any elected councillor.

That area is Calvary but it covers other districts like Mt Peasant, Mauscia, Jonestown, Alenor Gardens and parts of lower north Arima.

In the circumstances, I recommend that the electoral district should be North West Arima, which covers all the districts similar to the neighbouring north-east electoral division.

Ashton Ford is a former general secretary of the PNM