BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MORE than two weeks after the nation had cast their ballots for the General Elections in St. Kitts and Nevis, the Supervisor of Elections, Wingrove George, has finally released the entire results of the polls.
The Elections were held on Monday, February 16, 2015, and it was not until some 23 hours after the polls had closedthat George announced Team Unity did win the majority of seats.
On the evening when the ballots were being counted, the first set of results was not made public until approximately 11:00 p.m. However, following that, there was a steady flow with the first two seats to be declared being Constituencies 10 and Two.
Constituency 10 was won by Nevis’ Premier the Hon. Vance Amory of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) and Constituency Two by the Hon. Marcella Liburd of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP).
The announcement of results ceased sometime after 3:00 a.m. and the three panellists on ZIZ television told viewers that they had received information indicating that no further results would be declared for the day.
However, by 4:30 a.m. unofficial reports were circulating that the tri-party Team Unity had won seven of the 11 seats and its supporters had taken to the streets in celebratory mood.
It was reported that those who were assigned to count the ballots for various Constituencies had stated who the winners were and that information was forwarded to the Supervisor of Elections, and questions were being asked as to why he did not announce the results.
Subsequently, in a brief interview with ZIZ, George indicated that he did not announce the other results because they were being contested, and had he announced them it would have been unfair to the contesting parties.
He however promised that the results would have been announced by midday on February 18, but that was not so until 5:00 p.m.
Following the stance that the Supervisor of Elections took, calls were made by Chairman of the SKNLP Nigel Carty, the CARICOM Observer Mission, CARICOM Chairman the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the St. Kitts Christian Council, the St. Kitts Evangelical Association, the St. Kitts and Nevis Bar Association, the St. Kitts and Nevis Hotel and Tourism Association and the St. Kitts Nevis Small Business Forum and a number of others, for him to complete his constitutional duties and announce the results.
Some of these groups had described the delays as “excessive and unsettling” and even suggested that his actions or lack thereof “lead us to no other conclusion than that your disgraceful conduct was intended to subvert the will of the people as expressed in the General Elections”.
George, however, sent a release to this publication yesterday afternoon (Mar. 4) with details of the official results, including the count of every box in all of the Polling Stations.
