Voice of Change #5
PAM WEEKLY POLITICAL BROADCAST
Fellow Kittitians and Nevisians, Residents, Friends:
The most fiercely cherished principles of any country’s Constitution are those embedding fundamental rights and freedoms.
The concept of true democracy with free and fair elections is embedded in the fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Preamble and the Sections of our country’s Constitution are immutable laws.
The sanctity of our Constitution is acknowledged and respected by all except the rogue regime now ruling our twin-island Federation.
This is tellingly demonstrated in Prime Minister Douglas’ violation of the Constitution in arrogating to himself oversight, involvement in and direction of the reconstruction of the voters list.
The involvement of the Prime Minister or any member of his Cabinet is specifically prohibited by the spirit and the letter of the Constitution and the National Assembly Elections Act.
The Constitution calls for true democracy with free and fair elections and mandates, unequivocally, that the Supervisor of Elections shall act in accordance with such directions as he may from time to time be given by the Electoral Commission but shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.
The framers of our Constitution were quite explicit in their intentions that the Supervisor of Elections should not report to or be controlled by any Minister of this or any other government.
The Supervisor of Elections shall act in accordance with such directions as he may from time to time be given by the Electoral Commission but shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other person or authority.
This means that the Supervisor of elections reports only to the Electoral Commission, and to no one else.
The Prime Minister’s rejection of the Constitutional and the statutory prescriptions for the registration of voters are ominous acts of tyranny by a man obsessed with holding on to power.
Through several measures, the People’s Action Movement has given voice to the concerns of the people at the ruling regime’s blatant attempt to rig the next election by rigging the reconfirmation in the fraudulent exercise the Prime Minister has organised and is directing.
Denzil Douglas has taken this course because he knows that he has lost the trust and support of the vast majority of the Kittitian and Nevisian people.
He knows that his time is up, that his rogue regime’s time is up.
He used his Parliamentary majority to bulldoze a bogus amendment to the National Assembly Elections Act in order to give himself the power to control the reconfirmation process.
Eminent legal counsel holds that Section 9 of the National Assembly Elections (Amendment) Act, 2007 purports to amend the principal Act by the insertion of a completely new part in the Act called “PART VII: SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF VOTERS LIST” is unconstitutional.
Counsel are of the view that like the other Constitutional office holders such as the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of Audit, the Supervisor of Elections is intended to be an independent functionary insulated from the directions and directives of the political directorate in the operations of his duties and functions.
Within the context of the Constitution, the office of Supervisor of Elections is required to be endowed with the same qualities of independence as the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Director of Audit to ensure that the electoral system is independent of political and other improper influences and operates on the lofty principles as set out in the preamble to our constitution that we believe in the concept of true democracy with free and fair elections.
The Prime Minister is now feeling the heat from the people on this issue and from the international spotlight PAM has thrown on his illegitimate hijacking of the construction of the voters list.
The Prime Minister is looking more and more like a headless chicken that does not know where to turn.
On the eve of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in The Bahamas, he brings an amendment to his bogus amendment.
He also starts talking about integrity legislation well beyond a decade after he promised it.
All of this is driven by the fear that the bell has started tolling for the Douglas regime.
The Prime Minister knows that the people of this nation are totally committed to the concept that rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
The Minister is a participant in the elections and as such cannot be a judge in his own cause.
Prime Minister Douglas is a serial violator of the Constitution.
We must stop him now from taking St. Kitts and Nevis further along the road to of prime Ministerial tyranny.
We must restore power to the people through the supremacy of Parliament.
We must at all times recognise that ‘The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose’.
This was the reality that Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Lecturer, Author and Slave, defined in the nineteenth century.
From as far north as Belize and The Bahamas, down through the CARICOM chain to Nevis and Barbados, voters have removed incumbents and installed new governments.
The time has come for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis to rescue our country from galloping tyranny, corruption and lawlessness.
The Prime Minister betrays the Constitution and breaks the law and gets away with it.
The Prime Minister’s landholdings escalate as he gives away hundreds of acres of state land to foreign interests.
The Prime Minister avoids integrity legislation and refuses to account to the people for his deal on his building housing the Taiwanese Embassy.
All of this is a pattern of lawlessness, which can only give comfort to the lawbreakers that have given this country the highest per capita murder rate and the highest per capita prison population in the world.
Utter anarchy cannot be far off.
Kittitians and Nevisians must get ready to rescue our country by electing new government.
The time for change is now.
The wind of change is sweeping down on St. Kitts.
The handwriting is on the wall.
The government will fall.
Together, we can make it happen.
Let’s get ready to vote them out.
Thank you for tuning in.
May God bless you and your loved ones.
May God bless St. Kitts and Nevis.
