BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – VOTERS in last week’s general elections exercised their franchise “without intimidation or harassment”, according to a preliminary statement by the CARICOM observer mission on Thursday (Jan. 28).
The release, which can be found on the CARICOM website (www.caricom.org), noted that although there were concerns about certain aspects of the election process, voting was conducted in a peaceful and incident-free manner.
Those concerns will be addressed when the mission submits a full report on its findings and recommendations to CARICOM Secretary-General Dr. Edwin Carrington.
The six-member team was headed by Trinidad and Tobago’s Versil Charles-Wright, who comprised the core group along with representatives from the CARICOM Secretariat. All its members were deployed in St. Kitts on Election Day, where they witnessed the opening of the polls, voting process, closing of the polls and counting of ballots.
Prior to the 25th, the mission met with officials from the contesting political parties, attended political meetings and spoke with citizens in order to solicit views about the elections. The communiqué stated that the count was conducted in “a transparent manner” and stressed that the observers were pleased with the level of cooperation they received from the various stakeholders.
SKNVibes contacted Sam Condor, Deputy Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, who said that CARICOM’s endorsement was of “no surprise” to the incumbent party, which achieved its fourth consecutive election victory when it won six of St. Kitts’ eight electoral Seats.
“I knew that CARICOM and all the other international and regional observers would validate our election process. The Labour Party has a tradition and history of free and fair elections. I am glad that all the observers who were here have said so far that they were pleased with the conduct, but I expected nothing less from their statements,” he explained.
In response to a statement by the People’s Action Movement Leader (PAM), Lindsay Grant, that persons were unable to vote fairly and fearlessly, Condor accused the opposition party of “making excuses” to hide their own flaws.
PAM won two Seats in the recent elections and announced shortly after that it would challenge the results in three constituencies.
“PAM is no match for Labour,” stressed Condor. “We have won the popular vote in every election since the introduction of adult suffrage. We have always had the vast support of the majority of people. They will never be able to win as long as we are around. That’s why they have to resort to making excuses.”
SKNVibes tried to contact Grant and other members of the PAM Executive, but at the time of posting there was no response.
