It was a decisive victory for the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party on Monday when the voters re-elected the political faction for a fourth consecutive term in office. The January 25th Election Day was deemed one of the most anticipated and observed elections to be held in the Federation in recent times and at the end of the tallying early Tuesday morning, Labour was declared the winner having won 6 of the 8 electoral seats in St. Kitts. The People’s Action Movement won 2 seats, up one from the 2004 general elections where it was victorious in only one constituency. On Nevis, the outcome was the same as the 2004 elections with Concerned Citizens’ Movement winning 2 of the 3 federal seats against Nevis Island Assembly incumbent Nevis Reformation Party. The polls opened at 6 am Monday and intermittent showers and strong winds did not deter voters who lined up for hours waiting to cast their ballots. Several persons called in to radio talk shows and complained about the extensive waiting periods, claiming they were forced to queue up for more than 4 hours. “I got to my polling station just before 9 and met people in line who said they had been standing there since after 7 am. I did not get to cast my vote until around 12 and there were only about 20 persons in front of me; I mean how long does it take to make the X?” one agitated voter told The Observer. Other complaints voiced were that older persons were made to stand in line for lengthy periods and some articulated concern that they were made to dip their finger in the voters ink and exit the booth before seeing their ballots dropped into the boxes. Some of the polling stations accepted voters past the 6 pm cut off time including some in Sandy Point that went more than two hours past the deadline. Leroy Benjamin, Supervisor of Elections, began announcing results late Monday evening via live radio and television, informing of the figures from each polling station in each constituency as they were communicated to him. In the early hours of Tuesday, he announced that the Labour Party had won in Constituencies numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, and that PAM and taken Constituency #5. Nevis #10 went to CCM while NRP was declared winner of constituency #11. The populace keenly awaited the results of Constituencies #8 and #9.Just after 8 am on Tuesday Benjamin declared CCM winner in Nevis #9 and PAM victor in Constituency #8.The results for the 2010 elections are as follows: Constituency #1- Labour candidate newcomer and sole female candidate for the elections Marcella Liburd won with 1777 votes while PAM candidate Roy Fleming picked up 1536 votes; Constituency #2- Labour candidate Earl Asim Martin held onto his seat with 1907 votes beating PAM candidate Glenroy Blanchette By 431 votes; Constituency #3- Labour’s Sam Condor more than doubled the votes cast for PAM candidate Bernard Welsh, capturing 1306 votes compared to Welsh’s 545; Constituency #4- Labour’s newcomer Glenn ‘Ghost’ Phillip edged out PAM leader Lindsay Grant 1185 to 1156; Constituency #5- PAM’s Shawn Richards retained his seat, defeating another of Labour’s ‘new kids on the block’ Dr. Norgen Wilson 1128 to 985; Constituency #6- Labour leader Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas won By a convincing margin, capturing 1905 to PAM’s newcomer Junie Hodge’s 179; Constituency #7- Labour’s Dr. Timothy Harris was returned to government winning with 1635 votes over PAM’s Louis Williams’ 570; Constituency #8- PAM’s Eugene Hamilton’s 2017 ousted Labour candidate Cedric Liburd who received 1986 votes; Nevis #9- CCM candidate Mark Brantley defeated NRP’s Hensley Daniel 1749 to 1601; Nevis #10- CCM’s Vance Amory scored 665 votes to hold onto his seat against NRP’s Patricia Hanley who garnered 225 votes; Nevis #11- NRP candidate Patrice Nesbitt retained his seat, defeating CCM’s Alexis Jeffers 979 votes to 714. Rumors of a possible coalition government between the St. Kitts political parties and those on Nevis were tossed about leading up to polling day, however with Labour winning 6 of the 11 federal seats no such partnership could materialize. The 2010 voters’ list saw a drastic decrease following the electoral reform registration confirmation process, going from 38865 registered voters in 2004 to this election’s 32808. 21293 persons cast their votes on Monday with Labour securing 12686 or 60% of the votes to return to power. The winning parties celebrated their victories with mini motorcades through various villages on St. Kitts and Nevis following the announcements of voting results. PAM also celebrated picking up a second opposition seat as opposed to last term’s single constituency win. A grand procession is being planned for the SKNLP later this week.
