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Burt criticises OBA over voter information

Defending position: Patricia Gordon-Pamplin said 2012 issue irrelevant to 2017 (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

David Burt, the Premier, took aim at the Opposition after an online report found the One Bermuda Alliance requested and received voter information in 2012.

Mr Burt said in the House of Assembly last Friday that the OBA should not make “foolish press conferences without giving the full information” to the public.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, the former OBA leader, responded that what happened in 2012 was irrelevant when discussing her party’s complaints about events that took place in 2017.

She said: “Mr Burt was speaking about something that happened in 2012, about which I did not have intimate knowledge I must admit.

“However, the new Parliamentary Registrar stated that when she came in she ceased any access to databases after she was made aware it happened.

“Subsequent to that, the complaints that we got as a party came from new registrants who came on to the Parliamentary Register in 2017.”

She added: “I’m not interested in what happened in 2012, when from what I now understand there was equal access. I wasn’t talking about 2012. I was talking about the 2017 provision of information.”

Ms Gordon-Pamplin said if she had been aware of the 2012 access when the party hosted the press conference last Monday, she would have made reference to it.

She said: “It wasn’t meant to obfuscate or deflect.”

Speaking during the Motion to Adjourn, Mr Burt read excerpts from a news story published online.

The report claimed that Michael Branco, the deputy chairman of the OBA in 2012, had requested voter information from the Parliamentary Registrar.

It continued to state the Parliamentary Registrar’s office set up a database of information with both parties having access.

Mr Burt said: “Now we find out after this charade of a press conference where they’re asking for people to come clean, they didn’t even tell the public they had access to e-mails.”

The report also claimed that Jeanne Atherden, the Leader of the Opposition, was informed about the 2012 access last month.

Mr Burt concluded: “I happen to think that the One Bermuda Alliance should dedicate themselves to making more time for constructive criticism as Opposition and less time making foolish press conferences without giving full information to the people of Bermuda.”