BROWNHILL, Nevis - MARK BRANTLEY, Opposition Leader elect in the Federal Parliament and the Concerned Citizen’s Movement’s (CCM) candidate for Constituency Number Nine, had alleged at mid-morning on Elections Day (Jan. 25) that there were irregularities at the Brown Hill polling station, which was located at the Ivor Walters Primary School.
“We are having some difficulties which we are trying to sort out. We have a major problem in Brown Hill…over 50 more names are registered. I am going out there now to try sort this out. He had reported this to the poll station,” he said.
Brantley, who was contesting against Hensley Daniel, the Nevis Reformation Party’s candidate, also said that he had reported the matter to officials at the polling station.
Eustace Nisbett, Hensley Daniel’s Assistant Campaign Manager, told SKNVibes in an interview that his party was not officially informed of a new voters’ list. He said the normal procedure is that if there were to be a new list, both parties would have been informed prior to Election Day.
Nisbett declared that he suspected the allegation to may have been a rumour.
Businessman and Church Ground resident Edric Stanley, who had voted before mid-morning, alleged that a new list was made available on Election Day to Returning Officers in District Nine.
He claimed that the political parties’ aspiring candidates may not have been able to scrutinize it. “The political parties ought to have verified the names before the alleged new list is submitted,” he said.
SKNVibes contacted the Electoral Secretariat in Nevis to respond to the alleged irregularities but was refered to the Federal Electoral Office in St. Kitts. However, when contacted, the Supervisor of Elections, Leroy Benjamin Sr., said there were no irregularities on either island in the Federation.
Another procedure Stanley also questioned the process whereby Poll Clerks were the persons putting ballots into the ballot boxes after voters had placed the X against the candidates of their choice. He said that in future elections, the voter should control his or her ballot until it is inside the ballot box.
