Log In

Reset Password
BERMUDA | RSS PODCAST

MPs to debate reform of municipalities in the House

The row over voting rights in Hamilton will be rekindled today as MPs debate an order connected to municipality reform.The Municipalities (Election) Order aims to allow elections in Hamilton and St George’s to be run in the same way as national elections, after many decades in which business owners were entitled to multiple votes.In future, all city residents on the electoral register will get the right to vote.When the Municipalities Reform Act passed amid much controversy last summer, Government MPs championed electoral reform as the death of an unfair system protecting a privileged minority.But the United Bermuda Party is today expected to point out businesses pay the bulk of the taxes in Hamilton and need a say in the way the City is run.Veteran MP John Barritt, who will lead the UBP response, told The Royal Gazette last night: “We are going to have great difficulty supporting this order.”Mr Barritt will also criticise the way the order has been drafted, saying: “I defy anyone to go through that order and understand exactly what’s proposed.”Also up for debate in one of the final sittings of the current House session is the Consumer Protection Amendment Act, which aims to protect vulnerable consumers and is not said to be contentious.