Delivering a statement prior to laying a White Paper on Electoral Reform in St. Kitts and Nevis at a sitting of the lawmaking body, Prime Minister Douglas it was down to his governing Labour Party in government "to advance the process of governance."

"Madame Speaker, we (Labour Party) contested elections under that old system that was introduced in 1984, and again we contested elections in 1989 and in

1993 without any objections raised as to the validity of the results.  We contested those elections because we believe it was the system of the day, and even though we had our problems with the system, we nevertheless recognised that it was the system of the day and we adhered basically to the principles and worked at it," said Dr. Douglas.

"Twenty years after that system was introduced, we had the general elections in October of 2004.  I want to make the point that we worked with the system as it was," said Dr. Douglas, who recalled that a Labour Party candidate in 1993, under that same system put in place by the then PAM Administration, lost the elections in Constituency # 4 by 10 votes.

"Madame Speaker, including those 10 votes were two white British nationals, whose only claim was that they were vacationing at Franklands, at the home of a former minister of the PAM Administration and who was then the candidate for Constituency # 4, and they were allowed to register under that system which was introduce as only four months before we used that same system in the elections of 1984," said the Prime Minister.

"Madame Speaker, we have not heard nor seen those two white individuals again.  There was another candidate who had lost by some 35 votes and we did not raise any issue of foul play. In 1995, Madame Speaker, we again used the system, the same system and the Labour Party was victorious, 7 - 1 Madame Speaker and we followed that up Madame Speaker by All 8 Madame Speaker,"

said Prime Minister Douglas, who asked:

"Where was the cry of foul play?  The cry of foul play only started when they continued to receive defeat at their own system.  That is why in order to create confusion in this country, in order to try to say to the world that the electoral system was used fraudulently in the last elections, three of our elected members here today were dragged into the courts; dragged into the courts Madame Speaker for nothing.  Dragged into the courts to prove that their own system that they had introduced twenty years ago, now needed to be revisited."

~~Adz:Right~~Dr. Douglas congratulated three of his ministers, whose re-election in the October 2004 poll were challenged in the High Court by the defeated PAM candidates.

"Madame Speaker, we are bringing this to the Parliament at this time, because we believe that a number of extraneous matters, which could have impacted on this process, are now behind us.  We have also had the recent elections of Nevis, which have been concluded," said Prime Minister Douglas, who added that the Report from the Supervisor of Elections on the Nevis Island Assembly Elections was presented to him.

"We are now very much on the track to move forward with the process of electoral reform which as I said is critically important in the solidification of our democracy in rooting the administration into the basic principles that we have announced in our various policies that good governance must be the hall mark of this St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Administration as we move this country forward through not only economic changes and social changes but political development and changes as well,"

concluded Prime Minister Douglas.