Opposition Leader bashes Elections Supervisor
Calls for Benjamin, Mills resignation

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

Leader of the Opposition – the Hon. Mark Brantley

Brantley made this pronouncement, among others, in the wake of the Supervisor of Elections dismissing his allegations that the registration process in St. Kitts and Nevis has been compromised.

It was aired on WINN FM last week Wednesday that on questioning the number of new registrants in his Constituency since the beginning of the year (the highest in the Federation), Brantley said the figures ought to have raised a red-flag for electoral officials.

However, on the following day,Benjamin told WINN FM, “Each month every party gets the numbers, [for] the amount of persons that have been registered to which they have the ability to raise objections to any name. So PAM, Labour, CCM [they get that information].” He also stated that they knew the figures before he announced them on television and radio earlier in the week.

The Supervisor of Elections further stated that he found it difficult to believe that Brantley was now questioning the figures, “But politicians are who they are.
Whatever sparring going on, as far as I’m concerned, I’m not in that!”

In his response on Friday, Brantley said, “I have lost confidence in the Supervisor of Elections. He is either asleep at the switch or

Supervisor of Elections -Leroy Benjamin

“His very comments, however, and the obvious venom with which he expressed them, perhaps underscore the point more than anything that he is unfit to hold an office of such sacred trust as Supervisor of Elections. Do not misunderstand me, I have nothing personal against the Pastor but he seems to feel that no one should question him when he has obviously fallen asleep at the switch or worse, conveniently looking the other way (and I am being kind).”

The Opposition Leader said he was making a clarion call that the Federation’s democracy is under threat, and he could not care less whether it is the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), People’s Action Movement (PAM), Labour Party or the United National Empowerment Party that has it under that condition.
 
“As a member of CCM, of course, we have registered new people; all political parties do that but there is no conceivable way short of massive fraud conducted with the indulgence of electoral officials that 360 new people could emerge in District Nine more than any other constituency in St. Kitts or Nevis.  ~~Adz:Left~~

“Indeed, more than the whole of St. Georges/Gingerland, St. Thomas and St. James in Nevis combined (the rest of Nevis had only 221 while District Nine had 360...139 more than the rest of Nevis combined!). And these numbers come against the backdrop of constant complaints to the good Pastor about the shenanigans in the electoral office in Nevis. If he sees these numbers and he seeks to defend them, then the Pastor has to go. If he sees these numbers and they do not raise a red flag, then the Pastor has lost the moral compass for this job of sacred trust,” Brantley said.
 
He noted Benjamin saying that he [Brantley] had frequently called him, but declared he had only been forced to do so because of the problems given to persons in the CCM by “his protégé in Nevis, Ms. Mills”.

Brantley is challenging the Elections Supervisor to publicly to tell him when he had called him about any new registrations.

He explained that he had called him concerning people who were already registered and who had been given “all kinds of nonsense reasons” why they could not be confirmed and have their right to vote protected.

“I also called him once about Commonwealth citizens resident here for periods in excess of 12 months and who were being told by Ms. Mills that because they took a weekend trip to St. Maarten their residence had been broken and they had to start over to establish their 12 months.

“It is this type of rubbish that people have had to confront at the electoral office in Nevis, where those in charge have been allowed to run amuck without let or hindrance or oversight by the good Pastor even when he knows what is happening. The Pastor’s misrepresentation of the reasons for my calls to him again underscores for me that he is unfit to hold an office of such sacred trust.”
 
Brantley noted that the Supervisor of Elections’ job is of a constitutional nature, where the holder of that office has to oversee the integrity of the electoral system that underpins the nation’s democracy.

He however added that Pastor Benjamin “seems to seek to absolve himself of responsibility by saying that I and the CCM did not object on a monthly basis. So is he saying that we have now the responsibility for his job? If he cannot do his job or refuses to do his job then that is even more reason why he is unfit for this position”.