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| St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister | Basseterre, St. Kitts (October 12, 2006): At Monday night's public consultation in Lodge Village, the majority of people felt that overseas voters should continue to vote in St. Kitts and Nevis. Some presenters placed conditions on this right to vote, suggesting that overseas Nationals ought to be resident in the country for a period of time before an election.
The uniqueness of the overseas Nationals' vote formed the basis of many recommendations that night.
The Honourable Dr. Timothy Harris, the Member of Parliament for Constituency #7 (Bellevue - Ottley's Village), observed that, "Our situation is unique because where you have as equal or near equal, or disproportionate, number of people called citizens living abroad then that has implications.
If all of them are equal in terms of their entitlement, in fairness, it could have implications for what happens on the ground." He added, "I believe that this is a matter that has to be looked at because in our context it is somewhat unique relative to other jurisdictions where overseas voting is encouraged, by and large the citizen pool that is affected is relatively small as a percentage of the overall general population."
Dr. Harris said the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, which he chairs, believes that those people who are already on the voters" list should not be disenfranchised. "So a person who, for example, lives in Tortola or St. Thomas, who has voted in the past and more specifically within the recent past in a particular constituency, should be allowed to continue to vote."
~~Adz:Right~~Ericson James recommended that, "We might want to look at two distinctly different categories of overseas voters, i.e., perhaps those persons who have been born here should be placed in one category, and those persons who obtained their citizenship perhaps because their parents were born here...and perhaps they've never been here maybe we need to look at them differently."
Mr. James suggested that overseas voters who were born in St. Kitts and Nevis should be required to live here for about two weeks to one month to retain their voting eligibility, whereas ancestral voters should reside in the country for a longer period. That way, "...they could kind of get a feeling as to what St. Kitts-Nevis is and exactly why they should vote for a particular individual or party," he said.
There were other heavily discussed topics. Most speakers supported the introduction of some form of voter identification, saying that such an I.D. should be as uncomplicated as possible so as not to deter people from voting. People also called for an enumeration exercise before the realignment of boundaries, stating that any change must take into consideration the geography of the area and the natural link between districts to achieve an equitable distribution of electors in the electoral constituencies.
~~Adz:Left~~Additionally, people said that the current voters' list should serve as a reference in the development of a revised one. Also, presenters expressed the view - heard predominantly in Nevis - that there should be only one election in the Federation. "Nevisians have indicated that they are in a perpetual state of campaigning and voting and they would much prefer to have just the one election," said Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) member, Douglas Wattley in summarizing the main points of the meeting that he conducted along with ERCC Chair, Elvis Newton; Clive Bacchus, and Clement "Bouncin" Williams.
After all of these recommendations, a handful of people wondered aloud to the committee if anything would come of them, and ERCC members did their best to quell their concerns.
"I don't understand," said a lady. "What's next? Apparently you won't be using everybody's suggestions. I'm really wondering if when we sit here tonight it would be just that. I think before I could go on with other recommendations I really would like to know what would happen next."
"I want to assure you," said Mr. Williams, "that everything you say here tonight would be noted by us and would influence our report. We submit our report to the Advisory Committee [the National Advisory Electoral Reform and Boundaries Committee] and I and the other members here cannot tell you what will happen, but I just hope and trust based on the outline given in the [St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform] White Paper that it will go through the due process and in the end we'll have an outcome."
"The intention is really to have a new electoral system in place," Mr. Newton replied, "focusing on a new electoral law. That is the purpose, and why I am saying that is because we have been hearing a whole lot of constitutional issues, which we cannot deal with in the short-term. But in terms of the immediate outcome, the immediate outcome would be a new or revised electoral law. As we have been going through this process, there are some things that are coming through, which we can identify would need to be a part of a new electoral law."
~~Adz:Right~~The ERCC Chairman continued, "For example, throughout this evening we have been hearing the issue about the voter identification. There is near consensus throughout the country that there needs to be some form of voter identification, so that is going to be reflected in the report. There's also the issue that the voters' list needs to be addressed. So, in truth and in fact, what would happen based on the consultations that we are having, our report will reflect the areas of concerns, which could be fed into the development of a new electoral law."
With respect to the Constitution of St. Kitts and Nevis, Mr. Newton added, "We would also note the concerns in relation to the Constitution so that when further work is to be done on the Constitution there is a body of information that would guide that work."
Mr. Wattley addressed the lady. "I like the question that you asked because I think it should be asked more often than not. This process is quite frankly what we call applied public policy. It's public policy in action because the end result is a policy in the form of legislation, which would direct our lives for a long time in respect to us electing who governs. Now, we have heard some people ask this question, and I have given it some thought. But it seems to me that what should really happen after we would have completed this part of the process is that the people must take an interest in what we produce and follow it through the remainder of the process."
He added, "Once we would have presented our findings, quite frankly it is the issue of public interest, public pressure that takes over. Public policy is not going to be put in place if there is great contestation against it, but if the demand for it is sufficient then it seems to me that those persons who are making the decisions would be more inclined to implement the findings."
Mr. Wattley concluded, "I have great confidence that what we present would be available to you, so you would be able to see the recommendations going to the next level."
~~Adz:Left~~ERCC member Mr. Williams advised the attendees that they have up to October 30 to refine their recommendations, if they wish, and submit them to the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC).
Members of the public can e-mail submissions to erccsubmissions@gov.kn; phone them in at (869) 467-1555/1554, or post them to the attention of the St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform Secretariat, Former Development Bank Building, Church Street, Basseterre, St. Kitts.
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