By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Friday 7th June 2019) – Former Deputy Director of the St. Kitts-Nevis Social Security Board Steve Wrensford, the Opposition St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) candidate for Constituency Four says there are options to print the National Identification cards issued by the Electoral Office and finds it is “unacceptable” that individuals have been waiting for about six months to date to collect their cards because the machine at that office is down.
“…the head of the Electoral Office- the Supervisor of Election [Elvin Bailey]-works at a place that can do the cards for persons who are in receipt of cards. In other words, Social Security has done for the government on more than one occasion projects by issuing cards for persons in different government departments. We also have the Inland Revenue Department who have a similar machine.”
Wrensford, at the time, was speaking at the SKNLP monthly press conference held on Wednesday 5th June at Galaxy located at Port Zante in Basseterre.
He added: “I do not see why the Supervisor of Election cannot systematically organise a particular day in which those cards can be printed and persons can receive the cards. They can do it on a weekend, they can do it on specific days after hours at the social security office or even the Inland Revenue Department so the excuse that we are hearing is not acceptable. It’s a deliberate attempt to frustrate the ranks of the Labour movement, deliberate but ewe are not going to be frustrated. We are going to take this matter to court. In the long haul. All of us know, just must prevail and we’re going to take it to court.”
When contacted by this media house on this matter, Bailey-the Acting Director and Board Secretary at Social Security- declined to give a comment.
A public poster at Electoral Office signed by him informs in part that: “A notice will be made via the media when the machine is back to full function.”
Concerning the Electoral Office issues directly related to his constituency, the SKNLP candidate Wrensford talked about the over 180 names taken off the voters list.
According to him: “These names have been taken off without the persons being given due process. They have not been notified. They have not been given the right to appeal the objections. Based on the law, a person has the right to appeal by receiving notice that their names have been taken off and they have seven days in which to appeal that. These voters from Number Four have not received any notice that their names have been objected to, any notice that their names have been removed from the voters list and by extension, they have not been given the right due process to appeal the removal of their names. That I say is treasonous and it is disrespectful to the citizens who are born here, are from here and live here.”
“I can go further [to say] that persons who are legitimately registered and they go to the Electoral Office, to renew their cards, they are given excuses; unacceptable excuses that the machine is down. They have been hearing this for more than six months, and this-as I said before- is unacceptable,” he added.