I support, applaud and empathise with the disenfranchised students lobbying for absentee balloting.This vexing issue of absentee voting has been around at least since I was a student in the UK over 40 years ago when the UBP were in power. It was a topic the youth group constantly raised at Progressive Labour Party meetings but it was never acted on or lobbied for by the politicians to the perennial annoyance and consternation of the students then. The “politics of gradualism”, when speed and necessity are the watchwords, has its drawbacks and will come back to haunt you one day. As it has for the PLP today.I strongly believe in electronic voting, even for those of us who remain “on Island” during Election Day. One could vote from the convenience of one’s home or office without having to rush down to a polling booth or station and stand in line.. With the accuracy of bio-technology these days, voting by DNA identification and the like, coupled with our small Island community and geographical size, election fraud could be largely reduced or virtually eliminated no pun intended. Appropriate checks and balances can, before and after a vote, be brought to bear. The option, of course, is always open to those who wish to vote the traditional way and physically attend the polling stations.Finally, one of the planks of my Platform is Fixed Term Elections every five years, say at the end of June of the relevant year, in the wider interests of certainty, stability and enhanced democracy. Leaving such an important decision to the whim and fancy of one person is dictatorial, capricious and just plain anti-democratic. The exercise of such power totally disrupts the entire community, especially around Christmas time when students are abroad and people are looking forward to a peaceful end to a trying year, only to have the nasty element of the political turmoil and combat inherent in a ‘Call’ for an election, abruptly and rudely introduced into their midst; rather like having a “skunk” unceremoniously and unannounced flung into the midst of your Sunday morning prayer meeting. This is quite unacceptable and was advised against when Premier Ewart Brown did it five years ago.Further, a fixed term Election Day would lend itself fluidly to eliminating the logistical problems associated with “Advance Polls” which could be replaced by Early Voting, say in the beginning of the first week of June of the Election Year and up to Election Day. In my view, there is a lot of merit in these proposals which must be implemented without delay.Accordingly, may this current crop of students be more successful in this regard then those of us many, many years ago whose voices fell on deaf ears.Phil Perinchief was Attorney General and a Progressive Laboour Party Senator from 2006 to 2007 and is an Independent candidate for the House of Assembly, running in Pembroke West Central.