Staff Writer
The armed forces of the Federation will no longer permitted to vote early because of steps being taken by the Government of National Unity.
Under the direction of Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris, the law permitting early voting has been repealed. Dr. Harris revealed the change during his press conference Tuesday, March 15. He said the action will be brought before the 23rd sitting of the National Assembly when the legislation will be enacted.
Dr. Harris cited low voter turnout as a reason for the move and added that government officials feel there is no demand for early voting in St. Kitts and Nevis because of the small nature of the electorate. He also said ‘that bit of legislation in our view was always unnecessary given the size of our electorate in general and the size of the electorate in particular that was to be given the opportunity to vote early.’ He said the move by the Labour administration was ‘a callous’ waste of time of electoral officials.
In 2014, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas moved to the National Assembly to have legislation passed to pave the way for .armed personnel in St. Kitts and Nevis to vote in advance of the elections. This was not accepted by the opposition coalition Team Unity and, according to Dr. Harris, placed an unnecessary burden on the Federation’s security forces.’ Several other nations in CARICOM utilize early voting of emergency personnel so those officers would be available if unrest caused a need to arise.
Harris said several locations on the islands reported low to no voter turnout for early voting last year. He suggested that early voting was part of an ‘insecure administration in its dying moment to seal the election outcome.’
