Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
The winds of change have blown in St. Kitts-Nevis, where the Labour Party lost Monday's parliamentary vote after governing the country for two decades straight. While the war of words with the united opposition during the campaign had been fierce, in the end the process went peacefully and so did the transfer of power.
Unfortunately, the final outcome was not known immediately because the election supervisor halted the announcing of results early Tuesday morning, citing possible irregularities. Thankfully, he reappeared in the late afternoon and confirmed that Team Unity had earned seven of the 11 seats in the twin-island federation's National Assembly.
Past Prime Minister Denzil Douglas and his administration were admonished widely beforehand for basically ignoring a motion of no confidence supported by the legislative majority since 2013 and for wanting to push through last-minute changes to the electoral district boundaries. However, by conceding defeat even before the official vote count he helped diffuse a potentially volatile situation and showed the kind of maturity people ought to be able to expect from modern-day leaders.
Douglas leaves behind quite a legacy and perhaps will be remembered best for seeing his country through a difficult period when the no-longer-profitable and thus heavily-subsidised local sugar-cane industry was abandoned in favour of mostly tourism. Although probably inevitable, that step could not have been easy and took considerable political guts.
Of course, it certainly wasn't all "hosanna" during the past 20 years. The controversial land-for-swap deal and legislation to increase the number of senators led to a split in the cabinet and ultimately this week's loss at the polls.
Moreover, the Citizens by Investment programme, while lucrative, was frowned on internationally. It reportedly prompted Canada to terminate the right of entry without a visa for Kittitians and Nevisians.
Still, on the whole the conclusion has to be that the small independent nation with about 54,000 inhabitants is doing pretty well and actually can serve as a positive example for others. The incoming government led by newly-sworn-in Prime Minister Timothy Harris therefore would do well to continue building on that relative success story in setting its own policies.
Correction
Wednesday's editorial on the press conference of the Democratic Party ((DP)) erroneously mentioned "parliamentarians" and "opposition members" (both plural). The current (DP) fraction consists of only one person, as the other candidate elected on the party's list went independent soon afterward. The author apologises for the mental slip.
