BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS, Elvin Bailey has declared that all systems are in place to go ahead with the December 18th Elections on Nevis.
This comes as all Presiding and Returning Officer have been identified and the list being split to make it easier for persons to vote.
In an invited comment, Bailey told SKNVibes News that they are ready and are currently putting in the final touches.
“We are splitting it by villages so that we don’t have polling divisions that are too large. We aim for nothing more than 450 per polling station, and so that is what we are doing at the moment.”
Premier Vance Amory, at a public meeting in Church Ground on Thursday (Nov. 30, rang the bell to signal that the Nevis Island Assembly Elections would be held on December 18 and Nomination Day on December 11.
Long before the announcement was made, members of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) had voiced their concerns about the voters list.
The members contended that they had a difficulty accessing the list and constituents who were objected to were not finding their names on any list or had due hearing.
Questioned about the monthly list, Bailey explained that he was unaware of what people were talking about because it is published every month.
“We publish not only a list, we publish two monthly lists. We publish one that is based on the registration and we produce the one that is revised, which is based on the input of the people and the Registration Officers.”
The problem with the publishing of lists is that they do not last, Bailey explained, noting that people often damage or remove them from various locations.
“One of the first things I did as Supervisor of Elections was to appeal to people not to destroy or deface these lists, because anybody caught they would be subject to prosecution, jail time and fine. But people take them down or the weather destroys them.”
Bailey noted that those people registered up to the end of September would be eligible to cast their ballot, but they must be part of the revised lists published in December.
“So that is all the persons who were on the Annual Register who were not subject to objections. In other words, they were objected to but the objections were not allowed. And in addition, those who would have registered subsequent to the annual registered up to the end of September.”
SKNVibes has learnt that there are over 11,000 persons on the annual register who are expected to vote in the December elections.
