Commonwealth releases final report on St Kitts and Nevis general election

Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma today (19 February 2010) released the Final Report of the Commonwealth Expert Team which observed the 25 January General Election in St Kitts and Nevis.

While issuing the report, he said: “The Commonwealth Expert Team found that on election day, the voting and counting were conducted well. However, the Team observed that there were issues in the overall electoral environment which could be improved. These included the need for equal access to state-owned media and measures to strengthen the capacity and ensure confidence in the independence of electoral officials.”

The Secretary-General also encouraged the completion of the boundary redistribution process, and the implementation of the other recommendations for electoral reform in this report, as well as previous Commonwealth Observation reports.

Note to Editors:

The report was completed and signed by all members of the Commonwealth Expert Team prior to their departure on 30 January 2010. Before being made public, it was distributed to the Government of St Kitts and Nevis, political parties in the country, the electoral authorities, and other Commonwealth governments.