Electoral Reform Secretariat
Church Street
Basseterre
St. Kitts


I.D. SYSTEM, ELECTORAL SYSTEM, AND CONSTITUTION DISCUSSED IN SADDLER’S

Basseterre, St. Kitts (September 22, 2006): Attendees of the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) Town Hall for Saddler’s and Harris’s presented strong recommendations to the committee, including Prime Minister the Honourable Dr. Denzil Douglas who spoke at the Saddler’s primary school on Wednesday night on behalf of his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party.

The Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party elaborated on the proposed national identification system, which he recommended should be used for different purposes, including those concerned with elections.

“I support the view that for registration purposes identification must become critical. I also support the view that you do not necessarily have to have an I.D. card alone for election purposes...,” Prime Minister Douglas told ERCC members Elvis Newton (Chair), Clifford Thomas, Douglas Wattley, and Mutryce Williams, who conducted the public consultation at Saddler’s primary school on Wednesday.

Douglas Wattley: A couple of follow-up questions, you support a voter I.D.?

Dr. Denzil Douglas: No, I support identification for voting.

Douglas Wattley: OK, which means that, am I to understand, or are we to understand then that for voting purposes you would recommend any number of suitable forms of identification?

Dr. Denzil Douglas: Not any number; I am saying that one should utilize the information from a modern database that carries information that allows for a national identification, a national registration number, one that would allow for immediate removal of dead people from the voters’ list, an immediate signal of a voter who has turned 18 years and needs to be registered. The system kicks out a letter that goes to that person ‘You are 18 years now. You have the right to be registered to vote.’ When there is a marriage and it is registered in the Register of Marriages that person’s name automatically is changed, and things of that nature. I don’t believe in just a simple voter I.D. that you walk around with, just five years you use it for voting.

The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Leader added, “I think people are very concerned about their identity and so that is why I would continue to use the term intelligence card without fingerprinting.”

Claricia Langley, 24, presented from her prepared list of four topics: VOTER I.D. - She supports a multi-purpose national identification card and fingerprinting on that I.D. for security purposes. She recommended that a photograph be on it, as well as the voter’s residential address as it appears on the voters’ list, and a social security number; VOTERS’ LIST - She recommended a completely revamped voters’ list; CAMPAIGN FINANCE - She suggested that if the government contributes funding for all parties, or any party, in a general election campaign, it would have a right to know the sources of funding. However, if the government is not contributing, it is “none of their business”. She recommended that political parties publish for public knowledge their campaign budgets sometime before or immediately after the election announcement, and BOUNDARY ALIGNMENT - Ms. Langley said that she has been following the issue, yet she has not heard any conclusions as to how the boundaries will be re-aligned. “I have been in several consultations and every time we get to boundary alignment there is a problem,” she said.

She voiced support for the realignment of boundaries because “we have some seriously unbalanced constituencies”. In fact, the Report of the Commonwealth Assessment Mission on Electoral Reform in St. Kitts and Nevis notes that, “In the 2004 election, constituency number 2 in St. Kitts had 6,077 voters on the register followed by constituencies 1 and 8 with over 5,000 voters on the register while constituencies 3, 4, 5 and 6 had under 3,000 voters on the register. In Nevis a similar situation obtains.” Constituency No. 1 is East Basseterre. Constituency No. 2 is Central Basseterre. Constituency No. 3 is West Basseterre. Constituency No. 4 is Challengers - Half Way Tree. Constituency No 5 is Sandy Point. Constituency No. 6 is Newton Ground - Harris. Constituency No. 7 is Bellevue - Ottley’s. Constituency No. 8 is Cayon - St. Peter’s.

Ms. Langley suggested that when the boundaries are re-aligned the number of people living in a particular household should be taken into account for the sake of equity, as well as the number of eligible voters the Federation is going to have in the next five or ten years, “so that when they’re realigned you know we wouldn’t have to go through this process anytime soon.”

ERCC member Douglas Wattley asked her, “Did the Constitution get it wrong then?” He read a passage from the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution. “All constituencies shall contain as nearly equal number of inhabitants as appeared to the Constituency Boundaries Commission to be reasonably practical.”

Mr. Wattley remarked that he was only hearing her talk about eligible voters and soon-to-be eligible voters. She replied, “I’m using the eligible voters because we tend to forget that these children grow up to be voters. We concentrate so much on the present voters, and we die so quickly. At the same time, when we die they’re born.”

Mr. Wattley: I think that you should continue to make your recommendation with respect to the way you look at eligible voters because the Constitution does allow the Commission to use any other...

Ms. Langley: (Interjects) For guidance?

Mr. Wattley: Yes. It says that the Commission may depart from the rule and that’s the rule dealing with population size...

Ms. Langley: (Interjects) That’s it!

Mr. Wattley:...It may depart from this rule to such extent as it considers expedient to take account of several factors.

Ms. Langley: Because of that same clause that you read, that is the reason I was able to speak about it the way that I did this evening.

Mr. Wattley: OK. OK. Beautiful.

Ms. Langley: I think we need to make a note of it and pay very close attention.

Mr. Wattley: Already done!

John Mills also holds a keen interest in the St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform Exercise, so much so that he has been to town hall meetings in St. Paul’s, Dieppe Bay, and now Saddler’s. Consistently, he has been making one point. Mr. Mills feels that St. Kitts should increase the number of seats in Parliament from eight to nine. “If we look at Nevis, they have their local elections and there are five seats. So, I think they can remain and use the five instead of three,” he said, referring to the fact that Nevis has five contested seats in its local election, but only three seats in the federal election. “Now, in this way it will be nine and five; that’s 14 seats. And if a general election is held in the Federation, then no one party can have any confusion,” Mr. Mills said.

He continued, “I think we need to have our own voice in Parliament, that is St. Kitts. No Nevisian should be coming to St. Kitts and dictating to us how our affairs must be run. The same would go for Nevis. Nobody from St. Kitts should dictate in Nevis how they must govern their own affairs."

ERCC member, Mr. Douglas Wattley asked, “Mr. Mills, what do you say to those who argue that St. Kitts should also have a local government?”

“I support that fully,” said Mr. Mills. “We should have our own local government...What I will say can happen, there can be a kind of partnership arrangement where St. Kitts and Nevis can still move along with that friendship...for business, economic purposes, but when it comes to Parliament and the governing of the affairs, let them be separate entities.”

Heston Tweed commented on Mr. Mills’s recommendation. “Naturally, we are a federation. There is no way that you could separate unless clause 113 comes into effect,” Mr. Tweed said. Clause #113 in the Constitution of St. Kitts and Nevis gives Nevis the right to secede from St. Kitts once it secures a two-thirds vote in a referendum.

It is important to note that St. Kitts and Nevis is only undergoing a National Electoral Reform Exercise. There is no Constitutional Reform process taking place in the Federation. The following electoral issues, and some others, - whether there should be term limits for elected officials, whether Commonwealth citizens should vote in St. Kitts and Nevis, and whether what is known as the “Bryant Clause”, which states that “...a person shall be qualified to be elected or appointed as a member of the National Assembly if, and shall not be so qualified unless, he is a citizen of the age of twenty-one years or upwards and he or one of his parents was born in Saint Christopher and Nevis and he is domiciled there at the date of his nomination for election or his appointment, as the case may be”, should remain in effect - fall under the purview of the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution. Nevertheless, attendees keep raising them in the Town Hall Meetings, and the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) is noting the recommendations so that in the event that a Constitutional Reform Exercise is launched people’s opinions and suggestions on changes to the Constitution with respect to those issues would have already been recorded.

To access a copy of the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution and other documents being discussed in the National Electoral Reform Exercise, go to the References Section on www.newelectoralframework.gov.kn. The full Consultations Calendar is also available on the Web site.




Contact: Valencia Grant (869-762-6177)