By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (JANUARY 2018) – The Opposition’s complaints about the alleged mismanagement of the Electoral Office are expected to be brought before the court on grounds which include unlawful removal and addition of names on voters registration lists.
Chairperson of the St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party Marcella Liburd, a lawyer by profession, in addressing local media workers at the Opposition’s monthly press conference held Wednesday this week (31st January) claimed that the laws are being breached at that particular office.
“Right now at the Electoral Office. There are many atrocities taking place there. The laws are being breached with impunity.”
As it pertains to how soon the Opposition plans on taking court action, according to Liburd, in speaking more on the topic during the question and answer segment relating to query raised by this media house: “We hope very soon and…we hope probably within a month or so that we’ll have some action in action in court based on all these atrocities and irregularities that are happening at the Electoral Office without any response coming from the Supervisor of Election.”
She also claimed that for more than a year, the Electoral Commission never met.
“ No meeting at all of the Electoral Commission so there are all sorts of irregularities going on with respect to the Electoral Office and so we have to make sure that we are on top of things.”
Liburd highlighted the conflict of interest regarding the Attorney General Vincent ‘Juicy’ Bryon Jr. who is also the Minister responsible for that Electoral Office.
“We have consistently pointed out the conflict of interest in having the Attorney General being the Minister responsible for the Electoral Office, serious conflict of interest is involved here because he as the Attorney General is supposed to be the person that they look to for legal advice and he is also the Minister so when there are breaches at the office what happens?”
She continued:” Would he advise himself in these matters .This is a serious matter that needs to be addressed and so what is happening there is that people’s names are being taken off removed from the lists; they are being taken off from the list without their knowledge and by the time they go in there into the Electoral Office, they are telling them ‘ok, go and reregister. So it seems to be a little ploy…”
Liburd touched on areas of concerns regarding the voters’ registration lists.
“This just cannot be right and so we must act and act now on these matters. There are so many illegal practices going on at that Electoral Office. Many months, revised monthly lists are not posted in breach of the law, transfers are not posted, even persons whose names are removed, that should be published. That is not done so people are not even aware why their names are not on the lists but then they are telling them go and reregister.”
She stated that a letter written to the Supervisor of Election in October 2017 has gotten no response.
“As a matter of fact because of this, we had on the 23rd October last year 2017, written a letter to the Supervisor of Election pointing out to him the fact that list of transfers were not being published, that monthly revised lists were not being published. We also copied the letter to the members of the Electoral Commission and to the Attorney General. To date, some three months later I don’t have to tell you that we didn’t even have the decency of a response. There has been no response.”
As a result, she has sounded a warning “in letting them know that this is totally unacceptable to us and we intend to take legal actions to deal with these matters that are happening at the electoral office because that seems to be the only way in which we are going to have these matters addressed.”
Opposition Leader Dr. Denzil Douglas said the “illegitimate removal of names of voters-people who have voted before for many, many times before- removing their names from the voters’ lists will not go unchallenged here in St.Kitts and Nevis.”
He also stated that: “The registration of voters who have not seen the door of the Electoral Office, this must immediately cease as we must stomp out electoral office fraud and corruption from this country. These are serious matters that must be treated seriously and we will lead on this matter seriously and vigorously during this year.”
Dr. Douglas expressed the view that the “disregard by the chief registration officer, one who is called Mr. Elvin Bailey (in) his refusal to respond to our letter concerning the lack of publication of the electoral lists aligns with the modus operandi of the government of the day.”
Editor’s Note: On Wednesday this week, the Electoral Office posted the Annual Register of Voters (ARV)- Issue 40: Annual Register of Voters, 2018-which is said to be required by the National Assembly Elections Act Cap 2.01, Section 43.