BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, April 26, 2010 (PAM Secretariat) - The recent landmark decision by the High court in Antigua; that voided the election of three members of the Baldwin Spencer Administration including the Prime Minister himself, contained severe criticism of the conduct of electoral officials in the administration of the election. Here in the Federation complaints about electoral officials have become all too familiar.
Several dubious actions on the part of the electoral office have scandalized the nation and led to an erosion of confidence in the impartiality of those who work there.
Incidents including the insertion of names on the voters’ list on election day in 2004, the production of voter ID cards on polling day in 2010, the refusal of registration officers to convene objection hearings and the removal of names from the voters’ list in constituency 8 by the High Court after recalcitrance on the part of the registration officer and many other incidents have served to undermine public trust in this vital institution.
The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Mark Brantley, has made the electoral office a signature issue for several years. He has led the chorus of criticism of unprofessional and biased actions on the part of electoral officials and written several letters to the Supervisor of Elections, former pastor Leroy Benjamin all to no avail. The supervisor of Elections has substantially refused to even acknowledge the correspondence he has received and has been dismissive and disrespectful toward all who have raised voices in protest including the Leader of the Opposition. On the other hand he has consistently danced to the tune of the Prime Minister in blatant violation of the constitution which stipulates that he is to take orders or direction from the Electoral Commission only.
Now the news has broken that Mr. Benjamin, in his capacity as the Chief Registration Officer, has fired a registration officer in Nevis because he did his job. The situation that arose recently in which about fifty persons were transferred from voters’ lists in St. Kitts to Nevis was widely publicized by the Hon. Mark Brantley. He revealed the identities of these persons and his investigations exposed the fact that many had only very tenuous links to Nevis and certainly did not warrant registration as voters in Nevis without residential qualification. In one particularly troubling instance, a man was found to have been transferred without his consent or knowledge proving clearly that corruption of the electoral process is entrenched in the Electoral Office.
It is against this backdrop that the outrageous firing has occurred. No one has been fired for fraudulently changing that man’s registration without his consent or knowledge. No one has been fired for altering the voters’ list on polling day. The former registration officer in constituency 8 was not disciplined for disregarding direction of the court. In fact no one has been disciplined in response to any complaints but this one registration officer has been fired because he dared to remove from the register of voters persons who had serious questions about the validity of their registrations. This is victimization in the service of a political agenda and speaks to the unfitness of the Supervisor of Elections for his job. There needs to be a complete clean up of the electoral office beginning with the replacement of the Supervisor of Elections. The election petition of Lindsay Grant may just provide the much needed impetus for change.
