~~Adz:Left~~ The People’s Action Movement is shocked though unfortunately not surprised at the conduct of this Labour Administration that has been brought to light in the recent revelation of the names of the persons appointed to the Boundaries Technical Committee. They are James Buchanan, Oliver Knight, Jeffrine James and Beverly Harris.
It would be an exercise in understatement to claim that these persons have serious issues with impartiality. Mr. Buchanan is a failed candidate for the Labour Party in Constituency # 5 and Mr. Knight is currently a registration officer in the Electoral Office. The other members of the team are civil servants and it brings to mind the statement of the Deputy Prime Minister in reference to the Parliamentary Representative for Constituency # 2. If an elected Member of Parliament cannot rule himself, why would we expect civil servants to do so?
This lack of transparency and accountability is precisely the concern that caused this Party to abstain from participation in the Electoral Reform process initiated by this Government. From its inception it has been a farce intended to mamaguy the public and this most recent installment of underhandedness and sleight of hand tactics is exactly what is to be expected from this Denzil Douglas led Administration. There is no reason for any reasonable person to have any faith that this Government is in any way committed to ensuring the system of elections in our Federation is free and fair.
To date this Government has refused to publish to report of the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee despite its own stated promise to do so as well as the fact that this issue is of pressing public importance and so should be addressed fully in the public domain.
We have not been told exactly how this Boundaries Technical Committee has been appointed but according to the plan that was outlined by the Government at the launch of its program at the Marriott Hotel last August, this committee is supposed to submit its findings to the National Advisory Electoral Reform and Boundaries Committee. The Chairman of the NAERBC Mr. Raphael Archibald has indicated to the press that his committee is ready to submit its report to Parliament. The question must be asked then how it is possible that the BTC has already collected and submitted data for this report to be completed.
It is also important to note that no one from Nevis has been named to the Boundaries Technical Committee. Any alteration of the constituency boundaries requires a constitutionally prescribed procedure which must involve Nevis so why has this Administration not included any Nevisians on the committee? The current voters list is extremely bloated as described in the Commonwealth Assessment Mission Report so any alteration of boundaries can only occur after an enumeration exercise to determine the true population of each constituency. ~~Adz:Right~~
There has been no announcement of any upcoming census so the public can only wonder what exactly this Boundaries Technical Committee will be doing. The public should be reminded of the statements of both the Prime Minister in which he threatened that he would use electoral reform to “bus we tail” and the Deputy Prime Minister who told us that the boundaries will change.
The only explanation for this obfuscation is that this Government is committed to perfidious conduct in this matter of public importance. This Administration has the temerity to betray the public trust by moving the goal posts it erected itself for this process. There can only be one reason for this.
This Labour Administration fully intends to corrupt the upcoming General Election and disenfranchise voters in St. Kitts and Nevis. The People’s Action Movement wants to encourage other non – governmental organizations to make their voices heard on this very important issue. The issue of Electoral Reform affects us all. The principle of “one man, one vote” is the bed – rock of our democracy and none among us can afford to fiddle while the Federation burns.
