The People's Action Movement has been in the forefront of the public campaign for a reform of the electoral system since 2000. In the aftermath of the General Election of 2004 the PAM conducted an educational campaign to sensitize the public to the need for reform and the course such reforms should take.
This included town hall meetings, radio commentaries and articles in a local newspaper. For its part the governing St. Kitts Labour Party was initially stridently opposed to any idea of reform but in the groundswell of public support for reform changed course and launched a consultative process with much fanfare at the Marriott Resort.
The Government plan called for a series of public consultations as well as closed door sessions with civic society groups and several overseas missions to countries with significant populations of nationals of St. Kitts & Nevis. There was a specific timeline put in place by which a report would be compiled and delivered to the public.
~~adz:Left~~In light of several well publicized statements on the part of the leadership of the Administration the PAM took the principled decision not to participate in the consultative process instituted by the Government. The Party made the public aware of its reasoning in a series of advertisements that referenced the opposition of the Government to real reform including the statement by the Prime Minister that "Douglas gon give them electoral reform and bus dey tail wid it".
In addition the PAM voiced its grave concern about the plethora and composition of the committees set up to undertake the process of reform. The committee members were in most cases well known stalwarts of the Party or Government employees displaying obvious conflicts of interest of married couples. All the concerns of the PAM were brushed aside by the Government as mere politics.
The consultations went ahead and to date, nearly five months after the first phase of the process was announced to have been completed the report has not been made public as promised. The report has been handed over to another committee and the chairman of this second committee has made it public that in his expert opinion the public is not qualified to have access to this report.
The People's Action Movement demands to know why the people of this Federation have been the promises of this Government of a free and fair Electoral Reform process has not been fulfilled. The contents of this report belong in the public domain the people have the right to see just how their suggestions have been received by this Government. It is time for the Report of the Electoral Reform Consultative Committee to be published without any further delay.
