Electoral Reform Secretariat
Church Street
Basseterre
St. Kitts


ERCC MEMBERS DISCUSS ROLE, ELECTORAL REFORM ISSUES ON WSTX RADIO

Basseterre, St. Kitts (September 19, 2006): Below is an excerpt of an interview that Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) members did with St. Kitts-Nevis National Abdul Ali, the host of Community Digest on WSTX Radio 970 AM broadcasting out of St. Croix, USVI. On Thursday and Friday in the afternoon, ERCC Chairman, Mr. Elvis Newton spoke with Peter Ottley live on WSTA Radio in St. Thomas, USVI, via telephone.

Dateline: St. Croix, USVI Saturday, September 16, 2006

Abdul Ali: They’ve got a lot to do this morning. They’ve got to get out to St. Thomas and take care of some other business. Who have we got? We’ve got Douglas Wattley, and I think we’re going to begin with him first. We also have Elvis Newton. We have Clive Bacchus and Mutryce Williams, and of course we just want to talk a little bit about the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee established for the St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform Exercise.

They’re going to be holding consultations with St. Kitts-Nevis Nationals residing in St. Croix and St. Thomas, and of course the meetings are being scheduled for this weekend. Nice to have you. Come a little bit closer to the mic so we could get you really in there.

Douglas Wattley, welcome to St. Croix.

DW: Thanks a lot.

AA: Good to have you along. Tell us a little bit about the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee.

DW: The Electoral Reform Consultative Committee is a committee of seven. You’ve just named the Chairperson, Mr. Elvis Newton; another member Mr. Clive Bacchus, Mutryce Williams, not here with us today is Mr. Clement “Bouncin” Williams, Mr. Elvin Bailey of Nevis and also Mr. Clifford Thomas, and you indicated I’m Douglas Wattley and we all comprise...

AA: (Interjects) So you have male and female on this committee?

DW: We have one female.

AA: OK. And how many males?

DW: And six males.

AA: Six of you. (Laughs) A little bit. Anyhow, I don’t need to go into that right now. Let’s go into the real work of the committee.

DW: Well, basically, this is a committee that has been mandated by Parliament to undertake a series of meeting geared towards eliciting the views of Kittitians and Nevisians both living in St. Kitts and Nevis and abroad. The intent is to generate ideas, opinions, suggestions, what have you, which would be useful in crafting an improved electoral system for the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.

AA: Give me a little idea of what the system is right now. So let’s see what you want to improve on.

Elvis Newton (ERCC Chairman): Right now, we have a system, which is really totally different to yours. It’s based on the English system. We have 11 constituencies: eight on St. Kitts and three on Nevis, and you have a fixed five-year term for elections, where the prime minister - unlike what happens in the U.S. - has the prerogative to call the elections within the five-year period. In addition to that, you have what we term as first past the poll system, where we elect persons based on a constituency level and the winner is the one who gets the majority vote, even if it is a majority of one.

AA: Sure. OK.

EN: And the party that forms the government is the one, which commands the most constituencies.

AA: So you have, I think - correct me if I’m wrong - PAM and you have Labour.

EN: We have quite a number of political parties on St. Kitts and Nevis. You have the Labour Party, which is the current ruling regime in St. Kitts. You have the People’s Action Movement, which previously ruled for about 15 years. You have the Concerned Citizens’ Movement, which recently lost the elections.

AA: That’s Vance Amory.

EN: That’s Mr. Vance Amory. You have the Nevis Reformation Party headed by Joseph Parry, which is now the ruling party on Nevis. You have the UNEP, the United National Empowerment Party, which is headed by Dr. Henry “Stogumber” Browne. So those parties all contested the last federal election.

AA: Are they active, would you say?

EN: There’s only one party, which is not represented in the Parliament of the names I called, that is the UNEP because it’s a relatively new party.

AA: OK.

EN: But all the other parties are represented at the national level, that is at the federal level. And then on Nevis, which has a separate structure in terms of elections, you have a Nevis island government, which is currently headed by the NRP, having won just recently. You have a system, which allows persons - once you would have attained the age of 18 - to vote. You have also in our system, persons - our residents, Nationals - who live on St. Thomas and St. Croix, by virtue of their citizenship they are also entitled to vote in our election.

AA: Well, you know, there has been some concern about that. People always say that if individuals live here and are part of the system, they shouldn’t go elsewhere and vote.

EN: We heard some very strong sentiments about that. Some persons feel very strongly that having lived in the Virgin Islands - irrespective of the fact that they are citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis - they have no interest in coming back home to live, they have no interest in the political process in St. Kitts and so they ought not to be participating in the process. On the other hand, some persons feel equally strong that they have ties, they pay some taxes at home, they visit frequently...

AA: (Interjects) They send food and money.

EN: ...They send foodstuff and remittances, and so they should be allowed to continue to vote. The arguments are very strongly put on both sides.

AA: So what’s wrong with the system you have now? Why do you want reform?

EN: I think Mr. Bacchus would alert you to some of that.

Clive Bacchus: Let me put it this way, if you have a system it doesn’t matter what it is, after a while you have to revamp it. You have to look at it and revisit it.

AA: Yes.

CB: What’s happening with the system right now is that there are concerns. For instance, many years ago communities were much smaller and you knew everyone in the community so you didn’t require a voter I.D. card. There’s now talk that there’s need for a voter I.D. card.

AA: OK.

CB: A voter I.D. card that could perhaps have a fingerprint, perhaps not, but some picture I.D. that could be used. So there’s discussion along that line. There’s also the issue of when you have constituencies, and there’s an argument as to where you should actually vote. Should you vote where you live, or should you vote where you used to live...?

AA: (Interjects) Hmm.

CB: ...or if you’re coming back from abroad, where should you vote because you don’t live anymore...

AA: (Interjects) Right.

CB: ...you’re not resident on the island. Those are some of the discussions that are really driving the issue. The issue of constituencies, whether you should change the boundaries to reflect the populations in the constituencies because you have some that have very large populations, some with smaller populations. So the issues are voter I.D., whether you need to have a re-registration process, whether you should change the constituencies, and whether some of the reform will have an impact on the Constitution.

AA: Absolutely. All right, well, I think that’s meaningful...



Contact: Valencia Grant (869-762-6177)