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by Brian Francis, Email: bfrancis@uwichill.edu.bb

As a relatively small country, both in terms of physical size and population, St Kitts and Nevis surely held the attention of many throughout the Caribbean and perhaps beyond for the past several months, leading up to that country’s general elections. In a nutshell, what we all witnessed was a serious interplay between the law and governance in a regional economy.

After many months of legal manoeuverings over the issue of a no-confidence motion, brought against the then Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas by the Opposition in the House of Representatives, the country was plunged into another legal battle, this time in relation to the changing of the boundaries that would have affected the number of persons eligible to express their democratic right to vote.

That battle was eventually won by the then Opposition at the level of the Privy Council in London, finally paving the way for what clearly had to be one of the most anticipated elections in that country’s political history. Now, in retrospect, given the outcome of the general elections, one could perhaps conclude that the law and governance have saved the day in the twin-island federation.

Given all of the circumstantial evidence in the public domain in the months leading up to the poll, it is fair to conclude that only some economic and financial developments of a monumental proportion could have saved the day for Douglas and his St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party.

With the joining of forces of the various opposition parties in both St Kitts and Nevis, defeat was clearly staring the Labour Party in the face. And despite the delays in the announcement of the official results of the general elections by the supervisor of elections, I firmly believe that democracy has won and the people of St Kitts and Nevis now need to settle down and work together with the new government towards building a stronger economy, advancing the country’s democratic institutions, reforming the federation’s constitution, maintaining law and order, and looking after the needs of the poor and vulnerable in the society.

From an economic perspective, St Kitts and Nevis, like so many other Caribbean countries, has had its fair share of challenges in recent years. With technical and financial support from the International Monetary Fund and the will of the people, the economy has certainly recovered. Amazingly, last year St Kitts and Nevis was ranked as the third wealthiest country in the Caribbean, based on the World Bank’s classification of economies using gross national income per capital as its measure of economic development.

Therefore, economically, the country is on the right path. Outside of some major concerns in relation to the citizenship by investment programme, which clearly the new government has to re-visit, the focus has to be on further diversification to increase the contribution of more sectors and industries to the economic pie.

Otherwise, the economic progress that has been made to date may not be sustained.

Going forward, while recognising the need to continue to grow and develop the economy, I believe the new government in St Kitts and Nevis ought to place some emphasis on creating a new model of governance with a strong legal dimension as the main foundation. Simply put, the experiences of the past several months leading up to the general elections should never repeat themselves in the forseeable future.

Am I asking too much?

Email: bfrancis@uwichill.edu.bb

http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/64051/-people-st-kitts-spoken