by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Attorney General in the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Hon. Vincent Byron Jr. says an Electoral Commission has been established to oversee the Supervisor of Election, whose duty is to ensure proper registration of voters in St. Kitts and Nevis as well as, conducting the elections.
The Chairman of the Electoral Commission is Attorney-at-Law Mr. Nasibou Butler. Former Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Liburd, and Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Jason Hamilton is also a part of the Commission.
According to the Attorney General, a meeting was held between his office and the Electoral Commission a few weeks ago, where the Commission presented a number of recommendations as it pertains to Electoral Reform. He said the recommendations were presented for onward submission to the Cabinet and formally to the Parliament.
According to Byron, one of the recommendations put forward is the counting of votes at polling stations.
“There are such things as having votes to be counted at polling stations. Currently, the practice is that once you vote, at the end of the polling day, they’re then transported to a central location, oftentimes causing a lot of delays, a lot of logistics such as security and so forth; but one recommendation is that the presiding officers should count votes at the polling stations before transmitting them to the returning officer who’ll then have the final say and submitting them to the Supervisor of Elections.”
The Attorney General indicated that there are other recommendations made by the Electoral Commission that need to be formalised and will then be announced to the public in detail.
