Electoral Reform Secretariat
Church Street
Basseterre
St. Kitts


FINAL ERCC CONSULTATION IN TORTOLA DEEMED ONE OF THE BEST SO FAR

Basseterre, St. Kitts (September 12, 2006): The Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) delegation to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) returned to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis last night after a successful final public consultation in Tortola. ERCC member Douglas Wattley characterizes Sunday’s meeting as one of the best the committee has had since public consultations began on September 4.

Twenty St. Kitts-Nevis Nationals residing in the BVI attended the Sunday consultation. It flowed well, with people presenting substantive recommendations throughout the two-hour meeting. They underscored a number of flaws in the electoral system.

A lot of the compelling points were concerned with the need for both a new voters’ list and voter registration process.

John Lewis originally from Sandy Point, St. Kitts said although he last voted in St. Kitts and Nevis during the 1960s, his name is still on the voters’ list. “The reality is,” he said at the meeting, “if for some 40 years my name is still listed, it allowed me the opportunity in 2004 to go to Sandy Point and vote...This then lends itself to anybody, who looks at the voters’ list, deciding that they’re going to take X number of people to this place and have them vote” as someone else, such as himself, or even his father.

“When I looked at the registration list, for example, my father’s name was there, and he’s been dead for more than 10 years. So, my brother could have gone down [to St. Kitts and Nevis] and say, ‘Well, I’m Alvin Lewis’ and that person there wouldn’t know who Alvin Lewis is from Adam.”

There should be a re-registration of voters, and this registration of people who live in the Federation and abroad should take place at electoral offices in St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Lewis said. Voters must have a registration card with their address, age, fingerprint, and photo on it, he said, and it should be matched against a list at the polling station. “So it eliminates the double dipping, as is also stated in this Report [of the Commonwealth Assessment Mission on Electoral Reform in St. Kitts and Nevis], where people from one area would leave and go to another area and vote.”

It is interesting that - as Mr. Wattley pointed out yesterday - the majority of Nationals abroad voice support for a fingerprint to be placed on a voter identification card whereas the majority opinion in the public consultations in St. Kitts and Nevis is that a fingerprint should not be used.
People in St. Kitts and Nevis and abroad voice concerns over the ability to add electors to the voters’ list on Election Day. St. Kitts-Nevis National Merritt Herbert, the owner of ZBVI Radio, said, “That’s a serious matter. That should not happen.” Mr. Herbert recommended that continuous registration should end about two to three weeks before the day of elections, which he believes would give the Supervisor of Elections time to peruse the list and ensure that everything is in order. “Otherwise, it [the process] will continue to be complete chaos,” he added.

Regarding the Supervisor of Elections, Mr. Herbert said the person should have political autonomy. “From the time the registration starts, whoever is appointed in that office should be the one who decides on a lot of things, rather than the push and pull by the politicians as it were...If possible the person should be neutral, in other words non-aligned with Party A, B, C, or D.” He and other attendees recommended that the Supervisor of Elections should work full-time in that capacity. This suggestion also came out in a previous meeting.

Mr. Herbert said he does not believe Nationals abroad should continue to vote in St. Kitts and Nevis, “regardless of what property we have there...I think if we’re not living there, we shouldn’t be going to make decisions for those who are living under the system.” But he was in the minority on this point.

Most Nationals in the BVI told the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) delegation that they ought to have the right to vote in the Federation.

The ERCC delegation to the BVI - Elvin Bailey, Douglas Wattley and Clement “Bouncin” Williams - made the two guidelines for the electoral reform process available at their meetings. The guidelines, which are The Report of the Commonwealth Assessment Mission on Electoral Reform in St. Kitts and Nevis and the St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform White Paper, address issues central to the St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform Exercise.

Mr. Williams opened the meeting with an overview of some of these issues to educate attendees who had not read the Report and the White Paper before the consultation. “Basically the areas of electoral reform that are recommended by the Commonwealth Assessment Mission and in the White Paper are about voter qualification, how someone should be qualified; enumeration; the voters’ list, whether we need to revamp it or revise it, or work with it as is,” he said. “What about campaigning, the ethics of campaign? Should there be a code of conduct for the politicians to be guided by, so that we have peace and love emanating even at the highpoint of electioneering?,” Mr. Williams asked.

He continued, “The amount of funding that political parties should spend on campaigns, should there be a limit? Should there be no limit? Should the sources of campaign finance be revealed? These are questions we’re going to want to address. The National Assembly election, how people are elected to the National Assembly in St. Kitts as the Federal Parliament, as well as in the Nevis Island Administration elections, and comments on that nature.”

The Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC), consisting of Elvis Newton (Chair), Clive Bacchus, Mr. Bailey, Clifford Thomas, Mr. Wattley, Mr. Williams, and Mutryce Williams, will be holding consultations in Nevis today. A Town Hall Meeting for the Eden Brown, Butlers, and Bricklin areas in Nevis will take place tonight at David Morton’s Church from 7:30pm to 9:30pm.



Contact: Valencia Grant (869-762-6177)