ELECTORAL OFFICIALS DENY SECRET REGISTRATION  

ST GEORGE, CMC, June 6, 2008 - Grenada's Supervisor of Elections, Nadica McIntyre, on Friday denied allegations that persons were being secretly registered for the July 8 general elections even though the deadline for registration has passed.

"This is not true; we are not registering new voters. The last day was Monday.  We have a deadline to put out the new list and we are working towards that.  If we keep on adding names that will only lengthen the process for us," said McIntyre.

"What is happening is that some people need to replace their cards and we have being facilitating them. We are not registering them because their names are already in the system; their names are already on the master list," she insisted.

The voters' list is due to be published on June 17, with a one-week period for public scrutiny and corrections.

In recent days, there has been a series of postings on the Internet claiming that persons were being secretly registered to contest the elections in which the ruling New National Party (NNP) of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office.

Public Relations Officer for the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nazim Burke, said that his party had also received reports about the allegation but had no proof to substantiate the claims.

"Calls were made to us about the allegation but we are yet to confirm this.  We are continuing to investigate it but I hope that this is just an allegation," he said.

The other party expected to contest the election is the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP).

In the 2003 general election, the NNP won eight of the 15 seats at stake with the remainder going to the NDC.