Bahamas

Table of Contents:

• General Right to Vote
• Exclusion or Potential Exclusion Based on Disability
• Assistive Tools and Policies
• Candidacy or Holding Office

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Section 8, subsection (1) states:

Subject to the provisions of this Part, a person shall be entitled to be registered as a voter for a constituency if, and shall not be so entitled unless, on the day on which he applied for registration-

• (a) he is a citizen of The Bahamas of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity; and
• (b) he is, and has been during the whole of the period of three months immediately preceding that day, ordinarily resident in premises in that constituency.

 

Excerpt from the Parliamentary Elections Act (2008, last amended 2011)

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Section 8 states:

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part, a person shall be entitled to be registered as a voter for a constituency if, and shall not be so entitled unless, on the day on which he applied for registration-

• (a) he is a citizen of The Bahamas of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity; and
• (b) he is, and has been during the whole of the period of three months immediately preceding that day, ordinarily resident in premises in that constituency…

(3) For the purposes of this Act, a person who is a patient in any establishment maintained wholly or mainly for the care of persons suffering from mental illness or mental defectiveness, or who is detained in legal custody at any place, shall not by reason thereof be treated as a resident there.

 

Section 9, subsection (2) states:

Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (1), no person shall be entitled to vote at an election in any constituency, unless on the day of election-

• (a) he is a citizen of The Bahamas of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity…

 

Section 10, subsection (2) states:

A person shall be deemed to be suffering from a legal incapacity and shall not be entitled to apply for registration as a voter in any constituency or to vote at any election (whether registered as a voter or not):…

• (b) while he is deemed to be a lunatic or of unsound mind by virtue of any finding or declaration under any Act, and if at any time the Parliamentary Commissioner is satisfied that any person who is registered as a voter is subject to any legal incapacity, he shall forthwith make a mark to that effect against that person's name in the register and, if any person remains subject to any such legal incapacity for a period exceeding six months, he shall remove that person's name from the register in accordance with the provisions of subsection (3) of section 22.

 

Section 29, subsection (6) states:

Where any member of the Council is unable, by reason of ill health or for any other reason, to perform the functions of his office the Governor-General may in accordance with the manner provided by subsection (3) appoint a person to act as a temporary member of the Council and authorize him to perform the functions of that office.

 

Excerpts from the Parliamentary Elections Act (2008, last amended 2011)

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Section 55, subsection (1) states:

The presiding officer shall not permit the number of persons who are in the polling place at the same time for the purpose of voting to exceed the number of compartments in that polling place, and shall exclude all other persons except-…

• (e) the friend of an incapacitated voter.

 

Section 59, subsection (1) states:

The presiding officer shall give one ballot paper, and no more, to any person whom he permits to vote, but before doing so he shall-…

• (d) if the person has no right hand thumb or if for any other reason it is, in the opinion of the presiding officer, not practical to mark that thumb, the thumb of the left hand or such other finger as the presiding officer shall direct shall be so marked or if in the opinion of the presiding officer it is not practicable to mark any finger of the person, that person shall be marked in such a way as the presiding officer considers sufficient to indicate that a ballot has been issued to that person.

 

Section 59, subsection (4) states:

…where the appropriate finder or any other finger which any voter may be required to immerse in electoral ink is concealed or covered with any bandage or other material, the presiding officer shall refuse to give to the voter any ballet paper unless the voter either

• (a) removes such bandage…or…
• (b) satisfies the presiding officer that he is suffering from injury to such appropriate or other finger takes an oath to that effect in the prescribed form and makes one or more impressions in ink on that form, as follows
  • (i) with his right thumb;
  • (ii) with his left thumb, should he not have a right thumb; or
  • (iii) with any other finger, should he not have any thumb.

 

Section 63 states:

(1) The presiding officer, on the application of any voter who is incapacitated by blindness or any other physical cause from voting in the manner prescribed by this act and who takes and subscribes an oath…in form O…and is accompanied by a friend, shall permit such friend to accompany the incapacitated voter into one of the compartments in the polling place and mark such voter's ballot for him, but no person shall…be allowed to act as the friend of more than one incapacitated voter.

(2) Any friend who is permitted to mark the ballot paper of an incapacitated voter as aforesaid shall first be required to take an oath in Form P in the Second Schedule that he will keep secret the name of the candidate for whom the ballot paper of such incapacitated voter is marked by him, and that he has not already acted as the friend of an incapacitated voter for the purpose of marking his ballot paper at the pending election.

(3) Whenever any voter has had his ballot paper marked as provided in this section, the presiding officer shall enter on a list of incapacitated persons to be kept by him the name of every such voter and the reason why it is so marked.

(4) Any person who acts as the friend of more than one incapacitated voter in breach of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

 

Excerpts from the Parliamentary Elections Act (2008, last amended 2011)

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Section 29, subsection (6) states:

Where any member of the Council is unable, by reason of ill health or for any other reason, to perform the functions of his office the Governor-General may in accordance with the manner provided by subsection (3) appoint a person to act as a temporary member of the Council and authorize him to perform the functions of that office.

 

Excerpt from the Parliamentary Elections Act (2008, last amended 2011)