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(April 4th, 2018) Leader of the St.Kitts-Nevis Opposition Dr. Denzil Douglas continues to remain tight-lipped regarding his party’s association with the Cambridge Analytica, the political-research company at the center of a massive Facebook-data scandal.

The Cambridge Analytica through through it’s parent company SCL Elections worked on back to back 2010 AND 2015 re-election campaigns of then St.Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas . The SCL Elections ran the SKN Labour Party  2010 unprecedented multi-million dollar campaign which saw the successful re-election of Dr. Douglas . The SCL practised the dirty tricks — or ‘counter ops’ — that their CEO Alexander Nix was caught bragging about to undercover reporters in a recent International News exposé.

By SCL’s telling, its clients—who were typically charged approximately  $2 million, according to The New Yorker (paywall)—often assiduously implemented the company’s recommendations. In Saint Kitts and Nevis, for instance, SCL says it was able to delay elections and stage an election campaign disguised as a “national pride” campaign called “It’s Working”,  that helped its client hold on to power in 2010. The campaign was launched as a Tourism National Pride initiative with then Minister of Tourism Richard Skerrit declaring that the funds for the so called “It’s Working” Tourism National Pride Campaign was provided by an unnamed benefactor. The country was littered with the “It’s Working” paraphernalia which up to this day remains a household term that impacted the country’s lexicon.

There is little wonder the SCL Elections through it’s subsidiary group Cambridge Analytica were again engaged by Dr. Douglas to mastermind his 2015 re-election bid. In another effort to tarnish and scandalize the main opponent and opposition in the St.Kitts-Nevis , the UK Business Insoder reports that an Israeli cybersecurity team was hired in just prior to the February 2015 elections , and obtained private information, including medical records and sensitive emails,  on Dr.  Timothy Harris, who was later elected Prime Minister . This was not an uncommon practice for Cambridge Analytica as they similarly engaged the Israeli Cyber-security experts and received data from the hacked emails of Nigeria’s now-President Muhammadu Buhari and, The Guardian Newspaper reported, citing several ex-employees of the company.

 

The company’s leadership reportedly encouraged use of the data, offered by Israeli hackers, with ousted CEO Alexander Nix, along with other senior directors, giving employees direction on how to handle the material. The hacked or accessed information of Dr. Timothy Harris was often referenced during the re-election campaign bid of the Dr. Denzil Douglas led SKN Labour Party . The SKN Labour Party Candidates used the campaign platform to launch very personal attacks on Prime Minister Harris often referencing his very personal information including medical information. The revelation of the operations of Cambridge Analytica provides little doubt as to where the information came from.

Opposition leader Dr. Douglas, who has little  reluctance on commenting on many issues of the day,  has remained very quiet on the issue of his Association with Cambridge Analytica, SCL Elections and the Israeli Cyber-security Experts.