VZCZCXRO4261
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #0036/01 0162119
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 162119Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6000
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0098
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
RUEHCV/USDAO CARACAS VE
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J5 MIAMI FL

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 
 
BRIDGETOWN 00000036  002 OF 003 
 
 
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