TEMPERS, CARS SET ABLAZE BY ST. KITTS ELECTORAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRIDGETOWN 000036

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

WHA/CAR FOR ALAIN NORMAN
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SOCI EAID SC XL
SUBJECT: TEMPERS, CARS SET ABLAZE BY ST. KITTS ELECTORAL
REFORM MEASURES

REF: 07 BRIDGETOWN 1548


1. (U) Summary: Following the passing of electoral reform
law in December 2007 in St. Christopher (St. Kitts) and
Nevis, tempers have flared as the opposition has raised
objections to the ruling Labour party's implementation of
re-registration rules. In what has devolved into a vicious
battle in the local press, the opposition People's Action
Movement (PAM) has accused the ruling Labour Party of
preventing access to registration records, and one of the
PAM's agents was arrested and detained while trying to view
these documents. The Manager of Elections' vehicle was
subsequently torched, causing further escalation of the war
of words, amid suspicions that the PAM was resorting to
violence in its opposition to the new laws. End Summary.

Re-Registration Slipped Into Legislation
--------------


2. (SBU) On December 13, 2007, the St. Kitts and Nevis
parliament passed amendments to its election laws. After
parliamentary debate on the bill had concluded, the concept
of requiring registered voters to apply in person to
"re-confirm" their registration was introduced into the
legislation by the ruling Labour Party (during the "committee
stages" of the bill). Since the Labour Party has a very
large majority in parliament, the bill was easily passed,
even with the new section on re-registration. Meant to
address concerns about the integrity of the voter's list, the
intent was that every citizen that re-registered with the
Electoral Office by appearing in person would then receive a
new national ID card. The official Leader of the Opposition
Mark Brantley of the Concerned Citizen's Movement (CCM) of
Nevis told PolOff that the addition of the re-registration
article was a "last minute invention" by the government.


3. (U) In late December, and in the middle of the Christmas
holidays and the nation's carnival celebrations, Prime
Minister Denzil Douglas announced that the re-registration
process would be open from December 27, 2007 until September
30th, 2008. As soon as the process began, the opposition
People's Action Movement began complaining that the Electoral
Office had no procedure for the general public to know who or
how many persons have re-registered. Since the PAM had
boycotted debate of the bill due to its objections to the
electoral reform process, and since the re-registration
section was slipped in during the committee stage, the
opposition parties had not previously had an opportunity to
object to the "re-confirmation" exercise.


4. (SBU) In a private conversation, PAM's leader Lindsay
Grant (a dual U.S.-St. Kitts citizen) told Poloff that while
the general public still has access to daily logs of persons
registering for the first time, without records of who is
re-registering, there is no way for the PAM or other citizens
to know which individuals will be eligible to receive a new
national ID card; furthermore, since the ruling Labour Party
is well-known to have a large constituency living abroad in
the United States and the United Kingdom, the lack of any
records could potentially facilitate them falsely claiming
that nationals have returned from abroad to re-register. In
Grant's opinion, this possibility negates any benefits that
would have otherwise resulted from the new legislation and
the process of re-registration. Mark Brantley of the CCM
told Poloff that at least 50 percent of each official's
campaign budget is traditionally spent on the "busing"
practice, and he mentioned that he has made calls in
parliament for the introduction of campaign finance laws.

Tempers Flare...
--------------


5. (U) As soon as the election laws were passed in December,
political rhetoric on the divisive issue began to escalate.
In mid-December the St. Kitts/Nevis Observer newspaper
published an editorial titled "How Many Will Die?",
suggesting that the poor handling of electoral reform would
lead to highly disputed and possibly violent elections in the
future. Minister of State for Information Nigel Carty, who
has been the Labour Party's most outspoken defender of the
election laws, sharply criticized the newspaper for
"irresponsible" journalism, and himself engaged in an ongoing

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war of words with Grant in the local media. (Note: Minister
Carty also holds the Sustainable Development portfolio, is a
former Fullbright fellow, and has been a strong U.S. ally in
the U.S.-Brazil-OAS biofuels initiative. End note.)


6. (SBU) On January 3rd the PAM sent one of its agents,
Lauren James, to the Electoral Office to observe the
re-registration process. When James was asked to leave and
she refused, she was arrested for loitering and detained for
several hours by police before later being released. The PAM
immediately condemned the arrest, and the PAM general
secretary told the media that the party would "shut the

SIPDIS
system down" if the re-registration process was not conducted
in a legal and transparent way. Senior PAM leaders,
including Grant, continued to visit the Electoral Office
daily and vowed publicly to visit the office every day until
the logs and records are released. On a local radio program,
Prime Minister Denzil Douglas accused the opposition of
raising the complaints in a "deliberate attempt" to undermine
investors' confidence in St. Kitts.

...And then Ignite
--------------


7. (SBU) On January 10th, the Manager of the Electoral
Office, Oliver Knight, called firefighters to his house when
his Nissan Pathfinder ignited while parked in his garage. As
soon as news of the fire spread the next morning, Fire Chief
Hester Rawlins declared the fire an arson, and Minister Carty
told local newspapers that the PAM may have been responsible
for the fire. In his sharpest words to date, Carty told
local media: "If they (the PAM) believe they run this country
they can go ahead and pretend that they run this country.
And if they feel that they are violent and they feel that
they can bring disorder into this country, then the people of
this country is not going to stand aside and let that
happen." In sharp contrast to December when many government
officials were willing to discuss electoral reform, many
Embassy contacts declined to discuss recent events with
PolOff and instead referred all questions to Minister Carty.


8. (SBU) Several days after the fire, Acting Police
Commissioner Austin Williams clarified that the investigation
was still under way and that arson was only suspected in the
fire. Grant and the PAM adamantly denied to the local media
and to PolOff any PAM involvement. The political debate did
not subside, however, and Grant and the PAM continued to
complain that no statutory rules or regulations were in place
to govern the re-registration process.

Election Officials "Making It Up As They Go Along"
-------------- --------------


9. The CCM's Mark Brantley then joined the PAM in criticizing
the lack of re-registration rules and calling for more
transparency in the process. Whereas in an early December
meeting with PolOff he had noted that the CCM was pleased
with the amicable, open, and transparent manner in which the
government had conducted the electoral reform debate, he
described the addition of the re-registration article as
"dropped like a thief in the night". He expressed the CCM's
concerns that the new rules "run the risk of people being
disenfranchised" and he noted that whereas the
re-confirmation process should have had clear regulations
published before hand, no such rules have been published to
date. Saying he thinks "the electoral officials themselves
are confused", Brantley accused the government of making it
up as they go along" in regards to the re-registration
process. He noted that in his constituency in Nevis,
elections offices didn't have cameras to take the voter ID
photographs.


10. (U) Even though Minister Carty had initially claimed that
the election laws did not require any guidelines for the
re-registration process, by January 14th the government
finally acknowledged that rules should be created and
published. Minister Carty told PolOff that the government
hopes to have these in place by the end of January 2008.
Prime Minister Douglas also gave a press conference on
January 15th, emphasizing the importance of the democratic
process and accusing "some individuals" of trying to create
an electoral crisis and political tensions in an effort to

BRIDGETOWN 00000036 003 OF 003


advance their own interests. He furthermore announced that
mobile registration stations would be provided to facilitate
the process.

Elections in This Atmosphere??
--------------


11. (U) Despite the tensions surrounding the electoral reform
issue, Prime Minister Douglas also hinted that elections
could be called this year. The constitution allows him to
call elections at any time, though elections will be required
by October 2009. Grant, meanwhile, told PolOff that he
anticipates elections in 2008 and that the PAM is "getting in
campaign mode". Brantley opined that while the PM can call
elections at any time, the CCM does not expect that elections
will be called before the end of the re-registration period
on September 30, 2008.

Comment
--------------


12. (SBU) Though the political rhetoric in St. Kitts and
Nevis has ratcheted up, it is unlikely that the disagreement
will result in violence or public disorder, and the alleged
arson is likely an isolated event. In many ways, the
pressure brought by the PAM and the CCM have forced the
government to be more transparent in their operations, which
is certainly good for the nation's democratc process.
Still, the government's initial lack f transparency, and the
aforementioned rules allwing nationals living abroad to be
brught in for elections (reftel),remain areas of concern.
End comment.
OURISMAN