Be careful what you wish for, yes? Be careful, too, what you promise, Mr Editor. You may reasonably be expected to deliver.

To its credit, the One Bermuda Alliance government announced in the Throne Speech its plans to deliver on a promise to introduce absentee balloting for students abroad, providing they are studying at “recognised educational institutions” — although quite why their right to vote should be so qualified is not yet clear.

Still, students couldn’t be happier at the news, I expect. As well they should be. Their right to exercise their vote has been kicked around for some many years now without resolution. Finally, some action.

Absentee balloting isn’t electoral rocket science. The practice has been in operation in any number of other jurisdictions. We are catching up. But the question arises: why just students? What about those voters who just happen to be working abroad on election day, whether temporarily, or on secondment, or on a training course? Are they not entitled to the same right?

However, and it is always worth checking the record, the OBA’s election promise was — and here I quote — “to introduce absentee balloting for travellers and students away in college”.

It was actually one of a raft of good governance matters that the OBA said it intended to act on should it win the Government, all of them with a view to promoting “inclusiveness”.

The party promised to:

• Extend the days for the advance poll for travellers

• Give voters the right of recall over MPs

• Introduce fixed-term elections every five years

• Set up a process to allow citizens to initiate a referendum

It was an ambitious plan. Still is. But, presumably, it is one still worth pursuing. In fact, electoral reform is long overdue. As it so happens, we have a 1978 Parliamentary Act that qualifies for an overhaul after all these years. You may even think that by now a parliamentary review of the Act could have been, or should been, the subject of a bipartisan committee of the House. You would be right. It has been.

In fact, it has been almost two years since a House committee was struck and reported. Members from each side did not agree on everything, but they did agree on some things — one was the need to overhaul the Act and address some longstanding vexations such as, yes, absentee balloting, and not necessarily just for students.

There was also the controversial issue of “ordinarily resident”, in Bermuda as well as in any particular constituency, and the need to refine the definition now that we no longer have annual registration. These can become contentious issues — and they have been in past election campaigns.

You may also remember what sparked the formation of the committee: the matter of what ought to be disclosed by candidates by way of interests in government contracts for which clarity appears to be required.

The issues were all flagged for our attention by unanimous decision of the bipartisan committee along with its recommendation that an independent electoral commission be established to address these thorny issues.

But we have neither seen nor heard of any movement on that front and we are now but two years away from the next election, assuming the OBA keeps its promise of fixed-term elections. Time is getting tight. That’s not the only pity, though. The real pity here is that the work of members from both parties, where there was actual collaboration, agreement and acceptance by the broader House of Assembly, is still to be taken up. No one, Mr Editor, likes to labour in vain.

Such failure runs counter to another one of the OBA’s key promises for the development of stronger and better governance in Bermuda — and I quote:

• “To strengthen parliamentary committees and draw on parliamentarians from all parties to work on major policy issues of the day”

We have not seen a lot of that, either — and this despite endorsement by the Sage Commission, which recommended three additional committees to supplement the work of the Public Accounts Committee and to monitor the work — and expenditures — of government ministries.

This leads nicely to a point I made in my last column: what’s wrong with our system of governance and what can be done and should be done to try to fix it, much to the chagrin of some.

Let me be clear(er). I make no excuse for what has gone on: people responsible do need to be held to account. Action is required: investigation and, where appropriate, prosecution and/or discipline.

There should be no free pass for anyone, period, on what’s happened and what needs to be done to make accountability more effective.

The OBA had some ideas on this, too, going into the last election. It thought it could improve accountability and, once elected, promised to — and, again, I quote from the OBA’s platform:

• “Fully support the Auditor-General’s role as the watchdog of the people’s money”

• “Provide the Public Accounts Committee the support it needs to help prevent the kinds of abuses and excesses that have so damaged the public purse and the Island’s reputation”

Three years on, Mr Editor, that would still make for a good start.