CHARLESTOWN, Nevis – ALL 10 candidates have been confirmed for the December 18 Elections on Nevis, after they were successfully nominated yesterday (Dec. 11).
Supervisor of Elections, Elvin Bailey in a public address after Nomination Day activities confirmed the candidates and the Districts that they would be representing.
In Nevis 1, Charlestown, the Concerned Citizens Movement has nominated Spencer Brand and he would come up against E. Robelto Hector from the Nevis Reformation Party.
District 2, St. Johns, Leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement, Hon. Mark Brantley will lock horns with Hensley Daniel of the Nevis Reformation Party, whilst in District 3, Gingerland, Cory Tyson of the Nevis Reformation Party takes on Eric Evelyn of the Concerned Citizens Movement.
In Nevis 4, St. James, NRP’s Virgil Browne and Alexis Jeffers of the Concerned Citizens Movement will go head to head, while NRP’s Leader, Joseph Parry will look to maintain that seat over CCM’s Keith Scarborough, in Nevis 5, St. Thomas’.
The Supervisor reminded that there are over 11, 000 persons registered to vote during the elections. That, according to Bailey, marks a 12% increase over the last local elections, with 34 sites marked for voting.
In his speech, Bailey gave a breakdown of where all polling stations are located, pointing out that they have “tried to have voting stations in clusters. Thus, if you miss your name at one site, you will not have far to go to find it”.
“Nevertheless, our offices on Chapel Street will be open on Saturday 16th between 10 a.m. and 12 noon to assist with enquiries concerning these and other matters. Also, instructions for voters will be available in the newspapers and posted about the communities…
“I also wish to advise that the Electoral Commission met today to review preparations for the upcoming [elections] and are satisfied with these preparations.”
Leaders of both parties have in recent SKNVibes News interviews expressed confidence that they can win at the polls.
During that interview, Opposition Leader, Joseph Parry explained that he was confident in the policies that they are bringing to the table, stressing that “nothing substantial has been done by the CCM Government”, noting that they “cannot point to any major achievement of theirs”.
“Because, for the first four years, they did very little, except to pay salaries on a monthly basis. And then after 2015, two of the ministers went off to St. Kitts and spent all of the time down there and get two salaries per month. So, for the last six months they have been rushing around trying to get things done.”
Meanwhile, Brantley in expressing confidence stated that the Nevis Reformation party was short on ideas of how to govern Nevis.
“We are very confident. I think that all of our polling suggests that we are well ahead of the opposition. They have not been able to get any traction with any of the things they are putting out there. They are very short on ideas, very big on abuse and I think our electorate has moved beyond that. We in the CCM originally campaign of hope, we campaign of ideas and we feel that that campaign is resonating for our people.”
Though they have been pushing the notion of sweeping the elections, the CCM Leader had pointed to capturing four seats.
“We feel very confident about four seats and we are putting a lot of pressure on that fifth seat. That fifth seat is always going to be difficult for us, because it is in a traditional stronghold for the NRP. But we think Mr. Parry, who is the representative there, has been there for 30 years, I think at his age now, at his stage now the people of St. Thomas’ are looking for something different.”
But Parry believes that the important thing for his party is to listen to the people and develop solutions that they would implement should the party be successful.
“But the important thing for us is to meet people and to hear what their issues are, and we have been doing a lot of that. We have also been doing a lot of work to ensure that our manifesto reflects the thinking and aspiration of the people, rather than our own thoughts.”
