OBA MP suspects recent town hall meetings were merely an exercise in ‘rubber stamping’
Statement by Dwayne Robinson, OBA MP for Constituency #30, Southampton East Central:
The Minister of Cabinet and Digital Innovation recently concluded his consultative town halls for electoral reform. I am all for consultation, but the public has received very little concrete information on the Government’s actual plan for electoral reform.
The Government refused to support our bill because of issues it didn’t wish to go into depth on, and a plan it would not share. My hope was that during this process a concrete plan would be shared with the public. As according to the Minister, the plan had been in motion prior to the tabling of the One Bermuda Alliance’s Absentee Voting Act 2025. Instead, it operated more like a brainstorming session with very vague answers. The Minister didn’t even bother to show up for the final town hall, giving the whole exercise a rubber stamp feel.
The Progressive Labour Party Government needs to reveal to the public its concrete plan for electoral reform, the official structure of the working group, and a concise timeline document for reaching its goal of completion in September 2026. Education reform has shown us that the wait and see approach with the PLP can yield devastating results for Bermuda.
The way this has been handled does not inspire confidence that the September 2026 deadline will be reached.
