BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JANUARY 22ND 2014 (CUOPM) – With the fourth anniversary of the fourth consecutive election victory looming this weekend, St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas stated Tuesday that a wide range of impartial observers have been pointing out the clear and impressive track record of stability, progress, and opportunity which his St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Government has produced.
“The fact that this is the anniversary of the 2010 election is important because on January 25, 2010, Kittitians and Nevisians did something that we have all done many times before – we participated in that phenomenal exercise via which people in functioning democracies decide, via the ballot, which political party they wish to manage the affairs of their country – until the next election. At which time the people let their preferences be known again,” said Dr. Douglas during his weekly radio programme “Ask the Prime Minister.”
.
“We often take this process for granted in St. Kitts and Nevis, but we really shouldn’t – not when we consider how many countries there are, all over the world, where the voice of the people not only does not matter, it is never even heard,” said Prime Minister Douglas, whose St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party won the July 3rd 1995 election which retuned his Labour Party to office after 15 years in opposition.
With re-election victories in 2000, 2004 and 2010, Dr. Douglas said it was significant and something of which one should be proud of, that in St. Kitts and Nevis election campaigns are impassioned.
“We have political parties that vie, with great vigour, for the support of the voters. And then the ballots are cast. The votes are counted, and we all eagerly await the official vote count. Once there is a clear winner, however, we move forward in a spirit of respect and acceptance – because the outcome of the ballot count reflects the will of the people,” said Dr. Douglas, who Labour Party won 60 percent of the votes cast on St. Kitts.
“So we mark, this Saturday, the anniversary of the voters having delivered to the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, 75% of the seats that we contested. Equally importantly, however, we also mark the anniversary of our country’s most recent participation in that all-important electoral exercise via which all of us, regardless of political persuasion, get to state clearly and officially our political preferences as a free, self-governing, and independent people,” he said, adding: “Winning 75% of the seats we contested is only one part of what affirms and inspires us as a party and a government, however.”
“We are, after all, blessed with one of the highest per capita GDP’s in the Caribbean; the highest rate of economic growth in the Eastern Caribbean; the lead position re manufactured exports to the US; we are poised to serve as a regional training hub for customs, police, fire & rescue services, defense force, private security personnel and so on. What the collaborative efforts between the EU and St. Kitts-Nevis, instead, reflect is an acknowledgment of the responsible manner in which we have used resources at our disposal to build roads; expand, upgrade, and construct health centers and hospitals; boost agriculture; provide skills training; upgrade telecommunications and other infrastructure; sharpen our competitive edge in the international travel market, and so on. And it is this, listeners, that has inspired confidence in us as a country and a people,” said Prime Minister.