Two days ago, I got an email from a friend of mine who is a well known and highly respected person in Jamaica, both in the conduct of elections and otherwise.
In response to the St. Kitts & Nevis General Elections of Monday, February 16, my friend stated:
“I followed the unfolding of the proceedings and the farcical and embarrassing turn of events with the Supervisor of Elections. He ought not to be allowed to run an election in any Kindergarten classroom, but I’m sure there’s more to it than meets the eye. That was really nonsense. We know the results of elections (in Jamaica) by 9 p.m. on election night and we have more than a million voters here. How can it take 10 hours or more to count 35,000 votes? There had to be an underlying reason or underlying reasons”.
More to it than meets to eye? An underlying reason or underlying reasons? Interesting. And not even a Kindergarten election should Wingrove ‘Parrot’ George be allowed to run?
Well, we hadn’t been putting it exactly that way, but we had been saying that Mr. George was utterly unsuited and unqualified to be Supervisor of Elections of this country.
As it turned out, his predecessor in office had been a bad choice, determined by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal to be culpable of misfeasance in public office. But we all knew from the start that Mr. George was far, worse. If his predecessor acted in misfeasance in public office, then how would Mr. George’s behaviour be described by a Court of Law?
Before we go any further, it’s important to note that as at the time of writing this article, which is now 10 days, or nearly 240 hours after the polls were closed on February 16, the Supervisor of Elections has still not published the detailed election results. Nor have we heard a word from the Electoral Commission, which is mandated by the Constitution of St. Kitts & Nevis to supervise, and to give directions to, the Supervisor of Elections.
It’s my opinion that, given what has happened, or, to be more accurate, given what hasn’t happened, both the Supervisor of Elections and the Electoral Commission have failed to perform their duties in accordance with their mandates set out in Sections 33 and 34 of the Constitution.
But my friend from Jamaica wasn’t the only person outraged by the behaviour of the Supervisor of Elections.
In a published commentary, Charles Wilkin, QC, referred to “the atrocious and disgusting misbehaviour of the Supervisor of Elections (who should never hold any public office again) and of those who conspired with him or allowed him to frustrate the announcement of results and the swearing in of the new government….”
By the way, I’m told that on February 25, Mr. George reported for duty at his everyday job as a probation officer. What would Mr. Wilkin think about that?
My guess is that a Court of law would describe Mr. George’s behaviour pretty much the same way that Mr. Wilkin has described it. And I don’t think a Court would be any less severe on the Electoral Commission which, by its inaction, allowed Mr. George, “to frustrate the announcement of results and the swearing in of the new government”.
In case you don’t remember, think back on the two days following the election, with the uncertainty and the rumours. Think back on how tense the country was, and on the increasing frustration and impatience.
Ask yourselves what might’ve happened had our people been less patient, or what might’ve happened if Timothy Harris had not been sworn in by sundown on Wednesday, February 18.
The country was pushed close to the edge of chaos and unrest, notwithstanding the fact that the election had been fairly won by the Opposition!
I can imagine the contents of the email my friend in Jamaica might’ve sent me had Dr. Harris not been sworn in when he was.
And perhaps this is a good time to respond to persons who claim that Team Unity cheated. How could Team Unity have cheated? The entire election system and arrangements were under the control of Denzil Douglas and his surrogates.
Constituency 3 had had over 900 names added to its Voters’ List since the 2010 elections. The highest amount of any constituency in the country! Who were those people and where did they come from? What was the reason for all of this? The explanation is simple: the incumbent interests wanted to pump up the numbers in order to block Sam Condor, at all costs, from retaining the seat.
People were encouraged to register where they do not live. People overseas received National Identification Cards without ever going to the Electoral Office, so they came to St. Kitts & Nevis to vote although they had never come to register to vote. In Constituencies 1,2,3,4, 8 and 11, faces were seen in the lines that hadn’t been seen in this land for 10, 15 and even 20 years, and other faces were seen that had never been seen here before at all!
And cash and other bribes were given out in those constituencies like crazy right up to, and even on, Election Day.
And do you remember those vouchers for appliances, furniture, etc? Well one man was seen last Saturday, February 21, five days after the elections, delivering four refrigerators from the so-called Government Assistance Program to his home in Sandy Point. And not a poor man by any means. Four refrigerators!
Challenges over the months and even years against persons believed to be illegally registered were pretty much ignored and deflected. And we know about the shenanigans with the lists, the lateness of the lists, the inconsistencies on the lists, the additional polling sections made known to the Opposition just a day before the polls, and in some cases, even on Election Day itself, and so on.
It was a mess.
Then we heard the story that Team Unity had sabotaged the charter that arrived in St. Kitts after the polls had closed.
Utter nonsense!
So here’s the point: with all that the Opposition had to put up with for the two years or so leading up to the elections, and all that they had to put up with on Election Day itself, still, in addition to all of that, they and the country were then made to suffer after the polls had closed, thanks to Wingrove George and his bosses, and we’re all still suffering, as Denzil Douglas shamelessly and disgracefully tries to distract people’s attention from the vicious violations of the Constitution and of democracy during this last electoral cycle.
Let me give you the final vote counts for each candidate in each constituency:
Constituency 1: Ian Patches Liburd 1731 Asim Martin 1727
Constituency 2: Marcella Liburd 1775 Jonel Powell 1643
Constituency 3: Konris Maynard 1348 Sam Condor 1076
Constituency 4: Lindsay Grant 1252 Glenn Phillip 1226
Constituency 5: Shawn Richards 1167 Norgen Wilson 825
Constituency 6: Denzil Douglas 1969 Vernon Connor 200
Constituency 7: Timothy Harris 1647 Vance Gilbert 867
Constituency 8: Eugene Hamilton 2364 Terrance Drew 2128
Constituency 9: Mark Brantley 2033 Robelto Hector 1715
Constituency 10: Vance Amory 754 Cory Tyson 306
Constituency 11: Patrice Nisbett 1255 Alexis Jeffers 1164
In 2010, Labour had received a total of 12, 676 votes. Last week it received 11,865 votes, for a decrease of 811 votes. In 2010, PAM had received 8,627 votes, and last week Team Unity candidates in St. Kitts received 11,080 votes, An increase of 2,453 votes.
In Nevis in 2010, NRP had received 2,705 votes, and last week it received 3,276 votes. In 2010, CCM had received 3,158 votes, while last week it received 3,951, increasing its lead over the NRP over the past five years from 453 votes to 675 votes.
So despite all of the corruption, the pattern was clearly and emphatically in favour of change. And it would’ve been far more emphatic without the corruption. It could well have been a 10:1 win for Team Unity. And in the end, the outcome was decided, not by the money, but by the people.
The Election was played out as a referendum on Denzil Douglas, even by Douglas himself with his ‘One Boss’ and ‘Bigger Boss’ antics, and he lost. And no amount of time wasting, ducking, tricks or whatever else whoever had up his or her or their sleeves, would’ve been allowed to frustrate the people of this country this time around.
But perhaps in no way chastened or brought to his senses by his defeat, Douglas has been making some pretty imprudent public comments.
As recently as February 25, he said on Antigua’s Observer Radio that nothing untoward taken place after the Supervisor of Elections had stopped reporting the voting results. How would he know?
He also said in the Observer Radio interview that Timothy Harris begrudged him and was hungry for power. More nonsense.
It was Douglas who had held power for 20 years and who has led the St. Kitts & Nevis Labour Party for 26 years. It was he who insisted on holding on to power. It was he who begrudged anyone else becoming leader, and it was he who was, and who still is, power hungry. He absolutely shut down the Party’s machinery to the succession process. And in the end, what couldn’t be done within and by the Party, because of Denzil Douglas’ unquenchable thirst for power and control, was done by the people of St. Kitts & Nevis in the general election. The people had had enough of him. And what the weaklings and sycophants surrounding Douglas were afraid to tell him that he was done, the people told him in the polling booths. Clearly and emphatically.
You see, the Labour Party could’ve been in office today. But it isn’t, thanks to Denzil Douglas. Not Timothy Harris. And whatever consequences there will be to the Party, and possibly also to the NRP in Nevis, it’s Denzil Douglas who history will record as the culprit. Not Timothy Harris.
Let me go back to my Jamaican friend’s email message to me. He ended it with this:
“Dwyer, the people of St. Kitts were cruelly passed through a crucible, and they were made to face incredible frustration, but they held their heads and held to their cause, they did what they had to do, and they came out victorious, they are to be commended”.
That was the email from Jamaica.
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