Saint Kitts & Nevis - 2020 Elections
The country's polls opened 05 June 2020 to decide the country's mandate for the next 2020-2025 period. The General Election in St. Kitts and Nevis was constitutionally due by August 12, 2020. With the official results of these elections, the 11 seats in Parliament will be renewed, eight of them belonging to Saint Kitts Island and three to Nevis Island.
The leaders of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) and the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) have again reposed their trust and confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister and Political Leader of the People’s Labour Party (PLP), Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, to lead the tripartite coalition movement, Team Unity, in the next General Elections. The other political party making up the Team Unity administration is the Nevis-based Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), led by Premier the Honourable Mark Brantley.
In 2015 elections, two major political fronts – St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party and Team Unity which is an alliance of three political parties (People’s Action Movement, the Concerned Citizens Movement, and the People’s Labour Party) – were in a close contest in which latter managed to clinch the victory.
The alliance of Team Unity had the open support of two senior leaders, former Deputy Prime Minister, Sam Condor currently serving as Permanent Representative of St Kitts and Nevis to the United Nations and renowned lawyer Dwyer Astapahan. Sam Condor served as Deputy Prime Minister between 1995 and 2013 for St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, but later he shifted his political preferences and supported the Team Unity, while Dwyer Astaphan who also served as a minister for Labour administration supported Team Unity in 2015.
Sam Condor and Dwyer Astaphan are seasoned leaders as they have worked with both SKN Labour Party and Team Unity governments. As the political experience speaks, their support will display which political party will be better for the people of St Kitts and Nevis. But, by February 2020, Sam Condor and Dwyer Astaphan have failed to specify their support for any political outfit for upcoming general election of SKN. In the testing ground of Team Unity, support of these two individuals plays a role in outcome of the election as both of them are considered to be seasoned leaders of St Kitts and Nevis.
Former civil servant of St Kitts and Nevis Nigel Faron have already mentioned about the dissatisfaction of Sam Condor with Team Unity or specifically Prime Minister himself. Sam Condor will be relinquishing his position and planned to lend his support to the St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, for whom he previously served as Deputy Prime Minister between 1995 and 2013. In an interesting turn to politics of St Kitts and Nevis, renowned pollster Peter Wickham was more into one sided election support as he is officially hired by the ruling Team Unity.
Saint Kitts and Nevis' ruling party led by Prime Minister Timothy Harris declared victory 06 June 2020 for the June 5 general elections, winning nine out of the eleven seats for parliament for the 2020-2025 period. The ruling coalition had seven of the eleven seats in the last parliament obtaining at least two more in this electoral process.
“What an election! Team Unity has won enough seats to form the 2nd term of government. I am grateful for the support & faith put in us by the electorate who recognized our 1st term achievements & know we will deliver for them again in our 2nd term,” Harris tweeted after preliminary results gave the three-party Team Unity coalition the win.
The leader of the main opposition, Labour’s Denzil Douglas, retained his seat. Meanwhile, the Caricom mission, whose role included monitoring the voting process, announced it will issue a Preliminary Statement based on its observations; although no major findings were found. With the official results of these elections, the 11 seats in Parliament will be renewed, eight of them belonging to Saint Kitts Island and three to Nevis Island. Nearly 48,000 people took part in the elections, attending by their free will to the 129 polling stations.
The elections took place with no setbacks and under strict health and hygiene measures to avoid new COVID-19 cases.
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