Opposition questions timing of Government town hall and urges collaboration on absentee voting bill
The following statement is issued from Dwayne Robinson, Shadow Minister of Tourism, Culture and Transport and MP for Constituency 30 Southampton East Central.
The One Bermuda Alliance always welcomes consultation and open dialogue with the people of Bermuda.
However, the Government town hall on electoral reform is oddly convenient given that a Bill has already been tabled, and our consultation on the doorstep already shows very broad support for absentee voting for residents.
This town hall and efforts on voter reform might have been pre-planned but now that legislation has been tabled, why not work on the bill in front of Parliament before launching your own plan?
This shows us and Bermuda that the Progressive Labour Party intends to push forward with its plan despite clear good faith attempts to work on this collaboratively for the best interest of Bermudians.
Electoral reform will require the buy-in from all political entities and the voter, for the Parliamentary Registrar to execute a system that is trusted. This cannot be a partisan exercise, and it was the PLP who was late to the party on this, hence our concerns about the Government’s drive to see this through.
Let me be clear about our skepticism of the PLP’s willingness to carry out this reform. In the last budget debate, there were no funds allocated to electoral reform.
This led us to question how this election pledge was going to be carried out with no budget attached to it. The deadline of September 2026 that was given for the passage of electoral reform was released through Opposition questioning, not during a Ministerial statement, or press conference.
If this was a well thought out strategy, why wasn’t the timeline willingly given? The budget debates were held in May, giving the Government almost three months to come forward with details of their plans for electoral reform after the February 18 general election.
As a three-term government, it should not take long to settle back into Government and begin laying out their agenda. We cannot forget its leadership contest is set for October 2026. Though bound by a platform, will the new Premier have the same policy priorities, will voter reform fall behind the new leader’s primary objectives? Will the Cabinet be the same? We felt it was better to get the ball rolling on Absentee Voting sooner rather than later in the midst of all this uncertainty.
The One Bermuda Alliance had not been contacted to collaborate prior to tabling our bill, nor was it given updates on the Government’s progress on electoral voter reform. Hence, we acted to ensure this election pledge is completed. This recent activity around electoral reform appears to be the Progressive Labour Party’s attempt to soften the blow of voting down this legislation with the public. We have now issued a deadline of December 12th for the PLP to provide amendments to our legislation and share with us the concerns found by the Attorney General’s chambers. If not, we will debate the bill as is, and the PLP will have to show the people of Bermuda where they really fall on this issue.
We would never discourage any town hall or venue where Bermudians can express their thoughts to their elected officials. We encourage Bermudians to participate in the conversation around electoral reform as much as possible. However, for the Progressive Labour Party Government, it is not enough to engage in dialogue; you must match it with actions. The PLP could show true collaboration and work with us to pass the Absentee Voting Act 2025, will they?
