As the country readies itself for general elections, young legal professionals have given their perspectives, according to the rule of law, on what might possibly happen. During the premiere of Alarm Clock last week [Thursday, May 14th], one of the latest virtual shows in the federation, panelists and attorneys at law Jihan Williams, Garth Wilkin, Crios Freeman and Azard Gumbs shared their knowledge of the process of election.
Attorney Freeman outlined the process, which will be stated in the writ, a document giving instructions to act.
“As we know the parliament is now dissolved. So the question is when are we going to have an election? How is that going to be triggered? I can say from the outset that is not triggered by the Prime Minister coming and saying well the election date is this date or is that. An election is triggered by the issuing of writs by the governor-general. Of course, that would be based on the advice of the Prime Minister.
That fancy word “writ” is a document that is addressed to the returning officers and must be transmitted to them by the supervisor of elections, and that document would have the public seal on it and it will specify the day and place of nominations of candidates. And if necessary the day of the election, the day of the poll. Why I said “if necessary” is because there are circumstances and times – never happened in Saint Kitts and Nevis as far as my research is telling me – but if on nomination day only one candidate is nominated and no one else is nominated, let’s say in constituency number six Dr. Douglas is the only candidate who is nominated, then there will be no election in that constituency. The returning officers will return the write to the governor-general stating what has happened and that Dr. Douglas would be the next representative for constituency number six.
“The issuing in of the writs by returning officers have to be gazetted and it has to be placed in at least one newspaper in circulation in St. Kitts and Nevis. That is what starts the ball rolling because when that information is gazetted and published, then you move to nomination and that writ must be published for at minimum seven days before you can have nomination.”
With the high probability of a first-time general election under a state of emergency, while maintaining CoVID19-induced protocols, the panel give their recommendations on how voters can be protected.
Ms. Williams said, “We all know why we have we’re under these regulations with CoVID-19, so the persons who are in quarantine, this might raise questions of health. If they have to be away from us under now regular circumstance, is it safe for us to make a recommendation for them to to be able [to go to the polls] or should they maybe go to the polls at a certain time when the rest of the public is not there? I don’t know but that’s something worth considering, but just to say in terms of regulations we have the National Assembly Act and that is very, very, very precise about what can happen on Election Day. But I think personally, that we’re going to have to create some specific regulations relating to Elections 2020 that speak to the circumstances that we’re in now because there are things we did not think about…
“Pencils that we vote with – are we going to be using the same pencil or do you have to walk with your own pencil? Does somebody have to check your pencil if we’re allowed to walk with pencils? I think we really need to map out Election Day particularly and see all of the different contact points we will have to make specific provision for dealing with with this pandemic.”
Mr. Wilkin lobbied for possibly lengthening the hours that the polling days should be open stating, “There has to be carefully crafted regulations to deal specifically with the Elections.
“In terms of the National Assembly legislation, it allows the writ to specify time. So for example, I really can’t see the polls opening before 6 a.m. because all the returning officers and the supervisor of elections have to get ready and everything in place for persons who have to go to the pools. Certainly, there should be nothing wrong with the polls for example opening at 6am and closing at 10 p.m.
Potentially, what you could do is say ‘anyone that is not in quarantine, we’re going to have physical distances mechanisms at the polls. You had to wait a long line, [which will be] longer not in terms of number people but in terms of the physical distance of the line and we are going to therefore close the polls to ‘not-in-quarantine’ people at 8 p.m. as opposed to 6 p.m., for example, so that there’s a little extra time to facilitate that. And all of the actual sanitization tasks that have to take place within the polling area [will take place].”
Mr Freeman expressed his dismay at the time in which the populace has to be educated on the new measures that might be in place on polling day.
“My only disappointment is at this point in time though is that it’s now 88 days [away from the general election as at Thursday May 14]. People went virtual after we had to get locked down… we have To recognize that the election commission has a role to play in all of this, and at least by now and during all of the lockdowns and so on, conversations should have been happening and information and input should have been solicited from the public from candidates, from parties, from everyone involved so that we come up with the best solution to this problem. Because it’s not going to be easy, and at this stage, we’re still speculating. The issue is that an election could come in the next 17 days, literally, and we don’t know what will happen.”