BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THREE weeks after the January 25 General Elections, the opposition party People’s Action Movement (PAM) will be filing an election petition today (Feb. 15) challenging the conduct and practices of the elections.
Speaking to SKNVibes, PAM attorney Vincent Byron informed that his legal team has been inundated with evidence of widespread irregularities at the polls. Describing the evidence as “credible “ and “compelling”, Byron said his team has determined that it indicates illegal and corrupt practices – two grounds on which a petition to an election can be brought.
The PAM lawyer said the cases of illegal and corrupt practices stem from Statutory Rules and Orders (SRO) No. 18 of 2006, which was ruled null and void and of no legal effect by His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas in his judgement in the consolidated boundary cases 159 and 179 of 2009.
“We find that in that SRO was the plan to have what became known as a confirmation process to have people registered in constituencies in which they do not live. We find that there has been this, widespread, and that in itself we consider it to be an illegal practice because our Constitution clearly states that we should have an election [of] representatives to the National Assembly by voters resident in the constituency,” Byron continued. “So, if you do not live in a constituency, you should not vote in that constituency.”
PAM issued a release the day following the elections indicating its intention to challenge the results of the election in constituencies St. Christopher One, Two and Four. Since then, according to Byron, evidence has been collected for other constituencies as well.
At the time of going to press, the PAM legal team had not stated how many and/or which seats they would be challenging except Constituency Four, in which the party leader Lindsay Grant lost by 29 votes.
What he did say, however, is that if the rulings in the court challenges are favourable, his party would be in a position to form the next government.
“The formation of the government requires a majority of representatives that would seek one of their members who they would have as their Prime Minister. We are challenging enough seats that if and when the High Court overturns the election results for those seats, it is likely that the PAM would be in a position to form the government for St. Kitts and Nevis,” he noted with confidence.
Besides the charges of illegal and corrupt practices, allegations of bribery, undue influence and treating surfaced.
Byron added that given the nature of the evidence collected, candidate seats can be voided on the basis of corrupt practices. This may lead to installing the other candidate for that constituency who gained more votes or it can lead to a bi-election.
The January 25 General Elections resulted in the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) claiming six of the 11 seats available, the PAM two, the Concerned Citizens Movement two and the Nevis reformation Party one.
Two unsuccessful candidates of the SKNLP, Dr. Norgen Wilson and Cedric Liburd, have already mounted challenges against the election of their elected PAM counterparts on the grounds of them not being duly qualified upon nomination.
Though the elections are over, the public can anticipate a lengthy series of court hearings.
