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Unexplained Delay of Elections Results in St. Kitts and Nevis Dubious

Submitted by CARIBBEAN GUYANA INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY (CGID)
Team Unity leader Dr. Timothy Harris s
Team Unity leader Dr. Timothy Harris s

NEW YORK: The New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) has condemned the unexplained delay in the declaration of elections results in St. Kitts and Nevis. The Caribbean island nation went to the polls in general elections yesterday, February 16, 2015.

CGID President Rickford Burke in a statement Tuesday said “It is utterly unacceptable that almost twenty-four hours after the people of St. Kitts and Nevis exercised their franchise to select a new government, there seems to be a deliberate effort to delay the election results.”

“The unexplained delay has justifiably engendered confusion and speculation of apparent dubious motives; including an attempt to undermine the democratic process by impeding the expressed will of the people,” he contended.

Burke said that from pronouncements by the Prime Minster of Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves; St Kitts and Nevis opposition Unity Party Leader, Dr. Timothy Harris, as well as several press reports, it appears that the opposition Unity Party has defeated the ruling Labor Party lead by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas.

“If it is factual that the government has indeed lost the elections, then Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas and Supervisor of Elections Mr. Wingrove George have a constitutional obligation to follow the rule of law. They must immediately cause the elections results to be declared in accordance with the constitution so that a peaceful transition of government can ensue. In the absence of a judicial fiat enjoining them from doing so, their failure to declare the results would be a breach of the law.”

The GGID head also contended that it is unacceptable for CARICOM to remain silent on this matter. He called on CARICOM Chairman, Prime Minister Perry Christie of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, to state the community’s position on the matter and to uphold the universal principles of democracy and CARICOM’s own Charter of Civil Societies.

Burke said Caricom Heads must stop the practice of acting to protect their colleague Heads who engage in the most horrendous undemocratic shenanigans in defiance of the will of the people expressed through their vote. He hailed comments on the matter by Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines as “refreshing.”

41 responses to “Unexplained Delay of Elections Results in St. Kitts and Nevis Dubious”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    The Supervisor of Insurance has declared the results and Team Unity led by Dr. Harris wins 7-4 seats.

    Here is a good resource to follow news in St. Kitts & Nevis:

    http://www.winnfm.com/

  2. just asking Avatar
    just asking

    Democracy in the Caribbean, since when? (LOL), when the politicians can go around and buy votes, give voters gifts, and pay their bills, how can that be democracy, and now this man has lost & refusing to give the results?

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Can anyone shed light on the many private planes seen ta the St, Kitts airport along with charters literally dumping voters in St. Kitts to vote.

  4. Unexplained Delay of Elections Results in St. Kitts and Nevis Dubious

    […] By David […]

  5. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    If the change of government means that Leroy Parris will lose his status as Honourary Consul that will add to his financial hardship/

    He needs the pay for doing that job to pay his bills

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @DD

    St.Kitts and Nevis has something called Citizens by Investment.

  7. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    Thanks David

    I guess that will be where some of the money has gone

  8. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    just asking,

    You are entirely correct in your rhetorical question.

    There is no democracy at the national level in any of these CARICOM countries – Barbados included.

    None whatsoever!!

    We cringe with agitation and irritation, whenever we perceive oral or written statements from some people wheresoever to the effect, that there are democracies existing in CARICOM, or for that matter, that there are democracies existing any where else in this human animal world.

    What downright idiotic foolishness about a particular country being a democracy!!

    We know well that wheresoever it has been stupidly claimed by whomsoever that some country is a democracy – whether it is linguistically styled a parliamentary democracy, or a social democracy, etc, that there is really not such a concept, as a suitable valid description – rather more an oligarchy, or a plutocracy, etc, as a far more apt description of how the particular polity is defined.

    We wonder where the so-called political scientests are when such abject tomfoolery is trotted out.

    PDC

  9. oziboy Avatar
    oziboy

    Term limits needed in the Caribbean. Two terms as PM , and fifteen years max as leader of the political party. This would allow the party and the country to continuously evolve and prevent the addiction to power and the dictatorial actions of some leaders within this region.

  10. DeeWord Avatar
    DeeWord

    The fact that PM Douglas has been going to such an extent in the last several election cycles to fly people into St. Kitts in order to retain his hold on power is very indicative of either his megalomania or a deep seated need to keep new players out of the backroom files at all costs.

    This could devolve into another toxic affair when/if the opposition are ever able to actually take over.

    Winning is one thing. Winnowing out the entrenched Douglas acolytes is a whole other matter.

    And of course the problem with being out of governing is that it takes time to get up to speed; but the the opposition have former gov’t ministers I expect, and this is a small country so maybe that will not be an issue.

    I hope these guys are smart and ready to get busy quickly.

    We wait to see what happens.

  11. racehrse Avatar
    racehrse

    @ David

    “Can anyone shed light on the many private planes seen ta the St, Kitts airport along with charters literally dumping voters in St. Kitts to vote”.

    Thats what I hear from reliable sources!

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @DeeWord

    You are hitting the nail on the head. We have this entitlement mentality by the political class. It is why term limits is one of many amendments we need to make to our governance system. And then the big point, how the acolytes and surrogates commit to subterfuge.

  13. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    David,

    I heard reports from someone who went to St Kitts that there were many plane loads of people just going in to vote. I can tell you that LIAT with all its money woes, refused to do the charters, so that should tell you that Caribbean governments knew that Denzil Douglas was going the overseas voters way to win. Not even LIAT was willing to help him. There was also a story that when it was discovered that there were some on one of the planes who were planning to vote for the Opposition, they were asked to deplane.

    Whilst listening to the commentary last night, it was announced that a plane load came in long after the polls had closed and there was talk that the authorities were actually thinking to re-open the polling stations to accommodate these voters.

    This man intended to win at all costs. Well Denzil, power is not yours to have and to hold forever. You held on for as long as you think you could, the people have now spoken. Glad you are gone!

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Why are we (Caribbean governments) not expressing discuss at what has been happening in Guyana as well?

  15. DeeWord Avatar
    DeeWord

    @The People’s Democratic Congress February 17, 2015 at 7:24 PM… “some country is a democracy – … that there is really not such a concept, as a suitable valid description – rather more an oligarchy, or a plutocracy, etc, as a far more apt description of how the particular polity is defined.”============

    Your basic point is well taken that the idea of true democratic freedom flowing up from the many is truly flawed because of those behind the scenes.

    Without us going into a long theoretical discourse suffice to say that the CONCEPT of democracy is valid when actual change is made by the many in a comparatively free and unrestricted election process. However cynical the change may appear.

    But yes, indeed there is often an entrenched behind the scenes permanent government that laughs in the face of public election results. Such is life.

  16. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    http://news.yahoo.com/observers-call-calm-st-kitts-day-vote-192838728.html

  17. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    http://antiguaobserver.com/elections-team-unity-leader-calls-for-calm-as-announcement-of-election-results-comes-to-a-halt/

  18. David Avatar
    David

  19. DeeWord Avatar
    DeeWord

    @David February 17, 2015 at 8:00 PM,,, It is why term limits is one of many amendments we need to make to our governance system=======

    David, the need to legislate term limits is an interesting one when there is a very practical term limit process called elections.

    The pro argument has principally been that the elected official has great name recognition and coupled with electoral apathy can remain in office way past his date of effectiveness when campaigning against less well known opponents.

    In large countries that is a valid concern but in our small islands surely a strong push against an ineffective representative by a better opponent can be successful.

    Here and places like St.Kitts the citizens can exercise the term limit option easily enough.

    Therefore, blame then for returning bad actors to power every 10 years or for 4 consecutive terms.

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @DeeWord

    The acceptance or need for term limits must be discussed in the context governments (incumbents) have the big advantage with an unregulated campaign financing arrangement.

  21. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    On the political front, charter flights were leaving Canada over the weekend bound for St. Kitts’ Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw International Airport. On board were hundreds of Kittitians and Nevisians, most of them living in Ontario and Quebec.

    http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/02/15/canada-will-factor-in-st-kitts-and-nevis-election.html

  22. Gabriel Avatar
    Gabriel

    David
    Harry Russell, in his column ‘Wild Coot’ in the Nation newspaper yesterday referred to Guyana as the most corrupt country in the Caribbean.Those of us who follow the Guyana scene as per Kaieteur News and Stabroek News know only too well that the Indian cabal there,manipulated by Jagdeo,continue to give Caricom a very bad name and reputation and to some like lowedown an example of how to apply corruption to ministerial endeavour,all in the name of the people,by the people but not for the people.

  23. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Jamaica at number 9 on world press freedom index.

    http://index.rsf.org/#!/

  24. oziboy Avatar
    oziboy

    Democracy works for the few who sit at “round tables” deciding who our next representatives will be. After which the masses then select from amongst these pre-elected individuals, so there is no true government by the people in Barbados. In the hope for better governance during the interregnum term limits might be a few steps in right direction.

  25. David Avatar
    David

     

     

    Team Unity Supporters Celebrate In Basseterre

    Published on Tuesday, 17 February 2015 21:26

    Written by Staff Writer
     

    St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Team Unity supporters were understandably jubilant Tuesday, as they savored the election victory of the alliance. Opposition alliance Team Unity won seven of the 11 seats in the parliament of St. Kitts and Nevis. The St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party won 3 seats and the Nevis Reformation Party 1. He extended thanks to his fellow candidates and several other people he said helped the coalition move forward to success. He paid particular tribute to his fellow PLP comrade, Sam Condor, who failed to retain his seat in West Basseterre.

    Click below to hear full report

  26. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @David,

    Can we expect free flights home to vote in the next elections? We BajanCanadians is people too. lol

  27. DeeWord Avatar
    DeeWord

    @oziboy… Your comments re the candidate selection process is not unique to Barbados as you know and moreso has been the basic method used since the dawn of time.

    Not sure therefore what period of change or interregnum as you termed it you expect to take place so that more power resides in the hands of the people.

    And how would term limits make it better for the populace if the candidates are still been selected around the table?

  28. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hants February 17, 2015 at 10:27 PM “Can we expect free flights home to vote in the next elections? We BajanCanadians is people too. lol”

    We love you but…no free flight for you…and no vote either. LOL!!!!

  29. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @Simple Simon,

    I am a born and raised 100% Bajan.I have the “mobility” so I can vote.

  30. The People's Democratic Congress Avatar
    The People’s Democratic Congress

    “Without us going into a long theoretical discourse suffice to say that the CONCEPT of democracy is valid when actual change is made by the many in a comparatively free and unrestricted election process. However cynical the change may appear.” Copied from the comment published at 8.13 pm, Tuesday, February 17, 2015, by the person going by the pseudonym, Deeword.

    Here are some reasons why even in the scenario you attempted to draw in the response to us, there can be no equating of the illusory sham concept of democracy (as it stands and remains now in the minds of still too many people in Barbados), with the equally false notion of free and fair elections being held in a country like Barbados.

    1) There is no democracy when the vast majority of adult mature enough citizens of any country are not allowed, or do not have the legal constitutional rights, to participate – from start to finish – in the making of national decisions and policies that are bound to affect them whenever and in what ever ways.
    The marking of XXX on ballot papers by voters in elections in Barbados falls far, far short of such democratic standards, when – other than being done for numerical purposes in the counting of the votes that supposedly go to candidates in the elections, it does NOT and was NEVER intended to signify, speak to, and let us suggest too, substitution for questions of what, when, where, why and how plans, programs, issues, etc are going to be managed by any of the candidates, if they were successful ones, and as otherwise could have been required by the voters, if such a political system of doing such had been around.

    2) Whereas in anyone defining democracy in a state it ought to be connoted by them that political power is essentially controlled by the vast majority of the people of the state, the circumstances still exist that in elections, the absolute vast majority of voters are really – to varying degrees and in the short or long term, among themselves – controlled by the state run electoral apparatuses, are really – to varying degrees and in the short or long term, among themselves – manipulated by the principals of the parties and their financial backers and a few others, are truly – to various extents and over time, among one another – conditioned by some ideologies coming out of the politically driven sections of their media, and with many – too many of them – deceived by pollsters, into deciding which parties to vote for or not to vote for, to change which governing parties for which other ones, or which candidates to vote for or not to vote for.

    The PDC defines democracy at the national level as existing in states wherein sufficient numbers of citizens of those states have the opportunities to take part in and actually do take part in the same processes of the making of major political decisions and policies at the national level and who by virtue of the relevant agreements that they have made in pursuance of the implementing, the deferring, the changing of those decisions and policies are bound ( some others too) by those said decisions and policies that they have made.

    An essential prerequisite part of such a democratic state is that such citizen participation in the relevant national decision and policy making processes must have been established and guaranteed by way of there having been accompanying legal constitutional rights and freedoms to participate in such processes, and the accompanying necessary legal educational cultural safeguards against their degradation, the accompanying guarantees to the protection of such a rightful and dutiful participation in those processes, and the accompanying provisions ensuring that they and many others are bound by agreements coming out of such processes, having been fought for and won against a previous non-democratic oligarchic or plutocratic or theocratic or totalitarianistic order etc, and having been very much achieved on the basis of a national movement whose fundamental purpose was to ensure such rights and freedoms were achieved and were formalized and authorized in the politics, laws, education, and culture, as a whole, of the particular democratic states.

    PDC

  31. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    David,

    I did not hear the lunchtime news but what is this I am hearing? My spouse told me that the Governor General has refused to swear in Dr Inniss? Seems that he claims he has not received the final document from the Supervisor of Elections? These people are really playing the fool with democracy.

    If I were Dr Inniss, I would remove every last one of them from their positions…………….the Supervisor of Elections, the judges who are beholden to Denzil Douglas and the arrogant GG. People would talk but only for so long.

    My spouse was in St Kitts weeks before the election and the feeling there was everyone was scared, not even the taxi driver felt that he could say anything, he said I do not want anyone hurting my family.

    I heard Tricia Watson on Brasstacks this morning telling a caller that he is highlighting things that happenend in St Kitts but none of that has ever or will happenend here.

    She lives in dlp la la land………..all of the intimidation, the corruption, the doling out of projects only to supporters, the buying of votes, the infiltration of politics into the judiciary, the fear in the populace, the arrogance of the government…….all of this is exactly what we are seeing in the DLP daily.

    Look for the desperation in the DLP at the next election. They will do things unheard of in Barbados.

  32. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Sorry, it is Dr Harris, not Inniss……….I have a friend who is Timothy Inniss.

  33. David Avatar
    David

    @Prodigal Son

    Long live our banana republics.

  34. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    The voice of the person who finally swore in Dr Harris was that of a female. The GG is a man. I wonder who finally did the swearing in!

    Dr Harris got to get rid of that GG as soon as possible. Let him know there has been a changing of the guards and a new sheriff is in town.

  35. David Avatar
    David

    Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Harris. It is ironic St.Kitts along with Guyana and Haiti are the growth countries in 2014 named by the CDB yet Dr.Denzil Douglas got booted. There is a story there maybe?

  36. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    RE David February 18, 2015 at 7:23 PM #
    Congratulations to Dr. Thomas Harris. It is ironic St.Kitts along with Guyana and Haiti are the growth countries in 2014 named by the CDB yet Dr.Denzil Douglas got booted. There is a story there maybe?

    YOU DO OF COURSE KNOW THAT DOUGLAS HAS BEEN DOING WORSE THAN FUMBLE AND CO
    ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT CONDOR AND HARRIS GIVE UP WITH HIS RUBBISH

  37. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    On the St Kitts/Nevis Observer’s Facebook page, there is a picture of the thousands of overseas voters trying to get out of St Kitts. It is a worrying sight.

    Both parties apparently brought in voters. One report said that one plane had difficulty with its flight plan for back to the US. Would it be ironic if these people are left stranded as they would have no recourse, Douglas is gone and Harris is busy!

    Sixteen flights of imported voters…………just imagine that! Democracy is crying out for justice!

  38. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Both the politicians and the people are responsible for corrupting the elections process in St. Kitts. Why would someone who has not live in a country for years and sometimes for decades and who furthermore pays little or no taxes in that country accept a “free” plane ticket to vote in an election when they know fully well that they will not have to live with the result of their vote.

    But it seems as though we like it so.

    We can’t chastise the politicians because we are as bad as they are.

  39. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    So who paid for all of these flights?

    And what do the paymaster’s expect in return?

  40. David Avatar
    David

    The St. Kitts-Nevis Times

    Embarrassing for democracy in the Caribbean – Editorial

    FINALLY, Mr Wingrove George, the supervisor of elections in St Kitts and Nevis, has decided to announce the results of the general election held in that twin-island state on Monday. Mr George, late yesterday, confirmed that Team…

  41. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015 | MAKE THE OBSERVER YOUR HOME PAGE

    The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer :: The Federation’s Poltically Independent News

    Labour Overseas Voters Still Stranded

    LK Hewlett
    Story Updated: February 18th 2015 at 9:59 am|

    Hundreds of nationals living overseas whom the now-defeated Labour party brought in to vote in Monday’s elections remain stranded in St. Kitts.

    The Labour Party reportedly chartered up to 16 flights from the US and the Caribbean, bringing in more than 2000 persons.

    Many were due to return on Monday however The Observer understands a large number opted not to return as scheduled and thus several charter flights were canceled. Kittitian and Nevisian students studying in Barbados and Trinidad were reportedly among stranded voters.

    It was pandemonium on Tuesday as thousands packed into RLB Airport trying to return home. While some were successful, hundreds remained at the airport until late last night.

    One charter to New York’s JFK airport was cancelled due to TSA issues over uncertain passenger manifest. Up until Tuesday night approximately 300 were told to return today Wednesday.

    The Labour Party was not the only party that organized charters for overseas nationals. Team Unity’s charters returned to respective destinations on time, The Observer was reliably informed.

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