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Manchester, United Kingdom (October 17, 2006): More than 50 overseas Nationals showed up to the West Indian Centre in Chapeltown, Leeds on Sunday night for a public consultation with Electoral Reform Consultative Committee (ERCC) members, Elvin Bailey; Clifford Thomas, and Clement "Bouncin" Williams.
It was decidedly an eventful night, with intermittent disruptions from one ostensibly inebriated man in attendance. He was reproached by the audience, which consisted mostly of people from the St. Kitts-Nevis Association, a group that has being going strong in Leeds for about 20 years. They even threatened to expel him from the meeting; this never transpired, but what did in lieu of that was a useful fact-finding exercise in spite of the melee.
For instance, the ERCC heard about the registration and voting process here. The people pointed out that they have a voter registration card with name, address, and a unique number on it. Polling booth officials confirm their eligibility to vote on election day by crosschecking the number on the card and the number that is registered in the system corresponding to each name. The two numbers must match up, otherwise they would not be allowed to vote.
One woman was perturbed that this is not a practice in St. Kitts and Nevis. She recounted a story that explains why. Merna Liburd - that is her name - said she met another Merna Liburd during her last visit back home. Ms. Liburd said in the Town Hall Meeting that she told the lady, "The next thing you're going to tell me is that your father's name is Alfred Liburd."
Ms. Liburd continued, "She said 'yes.' " People at the meeting laughed. "This is not funny," she upbraided them. "It's true." Then she warned the ERCC, "You [St. Kitts and Nevis] need to pull your socks up."
The people also said that the elections authority regularly sends a form by post for people to update their information to account for changes, such as a new address. That's not the only thing that the elections authority uses the post for here. People can actually vote via post, attendees said, so there is no need to go to the polling station.
~~Adz:Right~~One woman quipped, "I rather you send me a plane ticket to vote, but why don't you send me something in the mail?" That remark precipitated a protracted debate over whether overseas Nationals should retain the right to vote in St. Kitts and Nevis, and whether political parties should pay for their airfare to facilitate increased voting on election day.
One man said, "If you don't know what the situation is like there, if you only know what is happening over the telephone, and if you don't live there, don't vote there." One woman said, "I think that if one does not know what the politics of the island and the social, psychological, and moral issues are then I do not have the right to vote."
Another man said, "We must get a Constitution similar to the American Constitution; wherever you or your children are born, they are American, full stop." Another woman addressed the previous woman's point. "I went down to Nevis for six months and ended up staying for six years. I can go to Nevis for three weeks and it [the socioeconomic situation, etc.] is in your face, and I can stay in touch and take an interest in what's going on there."
One woman said, "If we are so interested in the country then we should spend our money to go and vote." Several people in the audience expressed the viewpoint that politicians's spending money to enable people abroad to come home and vote is bribery. One man said, "The reality in this country [the United Kingdom] is that people don't even go up the street to vote. You need to look into the political parties's spending money to encourage people to come home and vote."
~~Adz:Left~~The people made strong arguments, but they never really reached a consensus on this issue, as well as some others.
One man said, "It seems to me that the situation in this meeting has arisen because of the confusion. Constitutional reform is the basis of everything. The hypotheticals that you [the ERCC] are raising are premature. I can understand the anger here tonight. It's a confused situation." The man concluded that the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee [ERCC] will not gain anything constructive out of the whole St. Kitts and Nevis Electoral Reform Exercise. The ERCC chair for the meeting, Mr. Bailey replied, "You say that we won't get anything out of it; we have got, we will get, and we will continue getting something out of it."
Other recommendations that the ERCC gained from its meeting in Leeds were that a minister of religion should be able to stand for elections; campaign finance reform should be implemented; political parties should receive equal access to the media; a quota should be established to promote women's entry into politics and increase their representation in Parliament; embassies and missions representing St. Kitts and Nevis abroad should play a role in maintaining a list of living and deceased overseas Nationals, and that the Federation should place someone or some people in the United Kingdom who would facilitate the re-registration of overseas Nationals.
The next meeting in the United Kingdom is in Manchester tonight at 7p.m. This public consultation will be held at the Barn Hill Studio, Barn Hill, Moss Side.
Contact: Valencia Grant (869-762-6177)
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