BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS it currently stands, each person who wishes to cast a vote in either the general or local elections in St. Christopher and Nevis, must do so in person; but why not consider absentee voting?
This is the consideration being made by Prime Minister and Minister with responsibility for Elections, Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.
The Prime Minister, earlier this week, while addressing a radio audience during his weekly talk show, “Ask the PM”, gave ear to a suggestion by one of the callers.
The caller suggested that a similar system should be adapted in St. Kitts Nevis to that in the United States of America where persons who are eligible to vote and who are not in the country could still cast their votes.
In response Dr. Douglas indicated that a similar system was once instituted in Guyana but was discontinued owing to corrupt practices.
“This caller has raised a very, very important issue…joining the debate of overseas residents who are registered in St. Kitts and Nevis be allowed to participate in the exercise of that franchise to vote, And she is right. In fact, in the Caribbean region, not only in the United States, but in the Caribbean region, in the past, we did have overseas voting…This, to a large extent, was happening in countries like Guyana…and because of what had been described as corruption in the practice, this was abandoned. But the caller is right.”
Dr. Douglas expressed that once this process is assured tamper-proof and transparent, it should be considered for implementation in the Federation.
“I am sure that if we can find a way that will allow this exercise to be transparent, to be fool-proof, to be tamper-proof, that would allow for proper accountability with the absence of fraud, I believe the caller is right that we should be allowed to mail in our vote in a way…where the vote is preserved and not corruptible and in that way, it may cut down on a lot of the talk that we are hearing and also the expense that is involved in moving large numbers of people back home to vote.”
It was alleged by opposition parties in Guyana that there were corrupt practices during the Burnham era when absentee voting was allowed.
The main opposition party at that time, the People’s Progressive Party, alleged that there were fraudulent practices at various consulates where original ballot boxes were replaced by prearranged ones with the aim of keeping the People’s National Congress in government.
