19 February 2010 – Voting and counting were conducted well but access to state-owned media needs to be improved Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma today released the Final Report of the Commonwealth Expert Team which observed the 25 January General Election in St Kitts and Nevis. While issuing the report he said: “The Commonwealth Expert Team found that on election day, the voting and counting were conducted well. However, the Team observed that there were issues in the overall electoral environment which could be improved. These included the need for equal access to state-owned media and measures to strengthen the capacity and ensure confidence in the independence of electoral officials.” The Secretary-General also encouraged the completion of the boundary redistribution process, and the implementation of the other recommendations for electoral reform in this report, as well as previous Commonwealth Observation reports. Source: Commonwealth Secretariat Look for the full story in the Friday edition of The Observer.
