BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (AP) - Prime Minister Denzil Douglas' Labour Party won a third term in parliamentary elections on Monday, clinching seven seats in an election marked by intense debate over the two-island nation's sagging economy.
Douglas called the elections early and led a campaign touting efforts to boost the economy, noting the recent opening of a new Marriott hotel with more than 600 rooms. Elections in the former British colony of more than 46,000 people weren't due until next year.
In the 2000 elections, Douglas' party won all eight seats in St Kitts, while in Nevis, the Concerned Citizens Movement won two and the Nevis Reformation Party came away with one.
More than 38,000 registered voters were choosing among five parties, for eight seats in St Kitts and three in smaller Nevis.
There was no change to the three seats Nevis holds but Shawn Richards of the People's Action Movement beat incumbent Jacinth Henry-Martin to secure his spot in the 11-member Parliament, according to Leeward Benjamin, in charge of the elections committee.
The campaign pitted the Labour Party against the opposition People's Action Movement, which focused its campaign on unemployment, poverty and crime in the economy based on tourism and a fading sugar and banana industry.
Opposition leader Lindsay Grant criticised unemployment estimated at more than 10 percent and a national debt that has grown to nearly Eastern Caribbean $2 billion (US$742 million).
Like other Caribbean islands, St Kitts saw a drop in visitors following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but has been regaining tourists.
Vance Amory of the Concerned Citizens Movement of Nevis took his message of independence to the smaller island of 11,000 people.
Nevis' island government makes laws and collects its own taxes and fees. But supporters of independence say the federal government in St Kitts takes a disproportionate share of corporate and other taxes without giving back enough.
Nevis came close to seceding in a 1998 referendum, falling just short of the required two-thirds majority. The constitution, enacted when the islands became independent from Britain in 1983, spells out Nevis' right to hold such a vote.
Douglas has warned Nevis may not be able to sustain itself if it were independent.
